Collapsed Scrum

There is nothing more dangerous in the game of Rugby Union than the collapsed scrum. Think of it. Eight hunking great forwards (many sporting flattened noses and cauliflower ears that advertise their experience of scrums) on one team collide, head on, with an equal number of monstrously-sized opponents from the other team in an attempt to get control of the ball. If the initial engagement is not carefully synchronized by the referee then the scrum can collapse, potentially causing serious injury to one or more of the participants.

Collapsed Scrum is bad news in Agile product development too. Thankfully it is rarely Scrum team members who get injured. But the product is certainly at risk, and perhaps even the agile adoption initiative. Its immediate consequence is the failure to deliver the results expected.

Nature of the Problem

What causes collapsed Scrum? As in the game of Rugby it is often the initial set up which triggers the problem. Either through misinterpretation of the rules, or an unwillingness to follow them, the Scrum team is created without the appropriate roles, responsibilities or events needed to properly implement the fast feedback cycles and inspect-and-adapt behaviors that drive success.

Read more here http://blog.learningtree.com/uk/collapsed-scrum/