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Tasks of Scrum Master question.

Last post 05:30 pm June 27, 2018 by Ian Mitchell
3 replies
03:27 pm June 27, 2018

Hi all,

Quick question for all you experienced SMs.   When talking about impediment removal, how involved is the SM in solving the issue itself.

Lets say as an example,  i have a team where some new members have issues accessing some tools needed to complete the work.  From your perspective, how is best to approach this issue? 

As the team should be self organized and i feel that the team should look the ways to solve the issue and if they get stuck and cant advance, then raise the concern to the SM as an impediment.

On the other hand, as a SM responsible of removing impediments, is the SM responsable to resolve this issue and followup until solved?

My organization is starting to adopt Scrum and the responsabilities are causing a lot of confusion

Thanks in advance

J

 

 

 


03:56 pm June 27, 2018

In my experience, when I've seen the team struggling with an issue, I've asked them about it, and if they need any assistance.   If the team wants to continue working on it, I tell them to please let me know if they want me to assist in any way.   If the team comes to me with an impediment, I then do what I can to help remove that impediment.

As a SM, I serve the Development Team and PO in any way I can.   I do serve as a point person on issues raised by the team, but I never feel it is my responsibility to resolve the impediment, only to do what I can to help.

Unsure if that makes it clearer or not.


04:02 pm June 27, 2018

Actually yes, and thank you.  The situation that is becoming usual is that the developer team does not even try, as soon as they see they have an issue they raise it to the SM for solving, that involves, creating tickets, getting approvals, following up. They only want us to inform them that the issue is resolved so they can test.  

I think the concept of servant and impediment remover has been distorted on this implementation.

 

 


05:30 pm June 27, 2018

When talking about impediment removal, how involved is the SM in solving the issue itself.

The SM ought to be involved in such a way, and to such a degree, that the Development Team’s progress towards the Sprint Goal continues unimpeded.

This can involve taking direct action to remove an impediment. It may also involve facilitating the team’s ability to solve its own impediments - this can be the most sustainable option in the longer term, although achieving the current Sprint Goal should always be of paramount concern. Part of a Scrum Master’s skill lies in making a sound judgment in these matters.

 


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