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Scrum Master as an Impediment Remover

Last post 02:55 pm May 4, 2017 by Olivier Ledru
4 replies
09:50 am April 23, 2017

Some of you have probably read this document:

https://www.scrum.org/resources/8-stances-scrum-master

One of Scrum Master stances is to be an Impediment Remover. Yet it also claims that only impediments that lies outside of team area of influences should be addressed by SM (SM should help the team to learn how to handle Impediments that lies within they area of influence).

I would love to read about your experience with sample Impediments that lied completely outside of Dev Team area of influence, Impediments which could be only solved by a Scrum Master.


08:10 am April 28, 2017

 

Team conflicts.

The initial conflict can be solved by the Team but when it crosses a limit (I don't remember the name) then Scrum Master has to jump in.


01:48 pm May 3, 2017

Organizational constraints and dependencies can impede teams from developing product increments of release quality each Sprint and under their own steam.

In such cases, which are very common, it would be up to the Scrum Master to engage with organizational stakeholders. He or she ought to explain which behaviors are helpful and which are not helpful, and coach the wider enterprise in the application of Scrum.

This responsibility lies with the Scrum Master rather than the Development Team, as they must be allowed to focus on the Sprint Goal. A Scrum Master can be expected to have a low tolerance for organizational impediments.


07:42 am May 4, 2017

If the Development Team have submitted a ticket with DevOps to obtain permissions for a particular server, then that ticket has not been moved upon and needs 'chasing' is it an impediment?

I think a lot of Development Teams would say yes.  As a Scrum Master, I think it depends on how you look at it.  I think the Development Team should chase it, as part of their ongoing work (is a lack of an important line of code an impediment, or is it something the Development Team should just write?).  However, I think the Scrum Master might want to look at the dependency on DevOps as the impediment.  This is where it becomes more of an organisational impediment.


02:55 pm May 4, 2017

The Scrum Master can help the Team in several ways :

The Scrum Master can chase the impediment by herself. She is doing the "actual" job and the Dev Team can focus on the "regular" job.

The Scrum Master can help the Dev Team to find out how the Dev Team can chase the impediment by themselves. She is coaching the Dev Team toward more empowerment.

 

It is up to you to choose the best way, but outside your context, I will say "it's depend" :-)

 


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