Impediments can slow down or even halt the progress of an otherwise well-functioning Scrum team. Stefan Roock has 5 tips on impediment resolution.
Problems:
- If the impediment backlog lives in the mysterious black book of the ScrumMaster, you have a problem.
- If your impediment backlog does not change you have a problem.
- If your impediment backlog is empty, you have a problem.
- If you have an impediment backlog with a growing number of active impediments, you have a problem.
- If the ScrumMaster resolves all impediments himself you have a problem.
Solutions:
- Make the impediments visible
- Search for impediments
- Limit the number of impediments
- Differentiate between local and global impediments
- Help the team to resolve impediments
Please check out the blog post at Scrum Alliance for more details about the solutions.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepartycow / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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October 8, 2011 at 05:52
Hi Henrik,
Why do you think he’s saying that if your impediment backlog is empty you have a problem. What if you reach a point where you have no impediments at all, at least for a short while?
PS: I like how you only posted the essential information of the post on your website.
October 9, 2011 at 15:39
Thanks for the positive feedback!
If your impediment backlog is completely empty, your are not focusing enough to identify them. Impediments may not always be that visible, but they always exist. However, the impediments may not be so severe, only preventing some or little progress. Even if an impediment is quite small at the moment, if not removed (managed) the severity can increse to an unnecessary blocker.