Skip to main content

Can Scrum Master cancel a sprint?

Last post 08:37 pm January 10, 2018 by Charles Bradley
6 replies
08:31 pm January 6, 2018

Hi!

I'm reading Agile Software Development with Scrum book by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle and I have a question about canceling a sprint.

The book says ' If the open impediments on the whiteboard get to be length, this may indicate that the larger organization isn't supporting the team. In this case, the Scrum Master may have to cancel the Sprint.This is a very powerful card to play. It should be played only when the Scrum Master is very concerned that the organization's support for the project is so low as to render the team ineffective...'

According to the Scrum Guide, only the Product Owner has the authority to cancel the sprint. I'm confused about it. Is there anyone who may have any experience or knowledge about it?

Thank you!


10:29 pm January 8, 2018

See: https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/6294/terminate-sprint

 


01:39 am January 9, 2018

Thank you Ian, I checked it and I’m still not sure about the answer of the question. 

I thought maybe the Scrum Guide was uptaded after the book but I see that it was incompatible before the last version of the Scrum Guide too. I assume no one has canceled a sprint as a scrum master:)

I'll go with the Scrum Guide in any way.

Thanks again!


01:26 pm January 9, 2018

Though this is a good book for reference, there are parts that are no longer valid. This was written in 2002, there have been many updates to the Scrum Framework since then. Use this as a reference but compare it to most recent Scrum Guide.


03:45 pm January 9, 2018

Much more modern books that are closer to more recent versions of Scrum are:

This one by Gunther Verheyan:

http://a.co/0pPcdaP

And this one by Hiren Doshi:

http://a.co/bXgvuhd 


04:19 pm January 10, 2018

Thank you, Curtis. I just finished it and  I realized that I was a little late to read it:) There are many differences between the book and the Scrum Guide as you said. 

Thank you for book recommendations, Charles! I chose that book because it was recommended by scrum.org but I'll read yours as well. 

 


08:37 pm January 10, 2018

Most welcome Meral.


By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.