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Interesting Scrum Question

Last post 11:57 am September 10, 2014 by Alex A. Gurbuz
4 replies
Derek Davidson
01:09 pm November 4, 2013

I came across an interesting question in the PSD Open Assessment that asks what the Development Team should do if, within the Sprint, they discover that they cannot complete all the Product Backlog Items that they took in to the Sprint.

I immediately searched for an answer that said something like "The Development Team should meet with the Product Owner and re-negotiate the content of the Sprint Backlog" but no such answer was available.

The answer that is returned as correct is "Raise it as an impediment with the Scrum Master". And I can sort of see where that answer comes from but it doesn't seem like the right answer, just the best of a bad set of options.

I wonder what others think?

Ian Mitchell
11:50 am November 7, 2013

The answer that is returned as correct does seem to be the best one.

It is better that a Scrum Master resolves a problem, and that the planned Sprint is thereby able to complete, than it is to involve the Product Owner and re-negotiate the content of the Sprint Backlog. The Scrum Master should therefore be notified of any impediment as soon as possible.

Hugo Enrique Rivera Torres
03:13 pm November 11, 2013

Even when I thought immediately the same -reach for the PO and renegotiate the Sprint Backlog- seems that the correct answer makes sense. As a ScrumMaster, we should look for any impediments that are blocking the Scrum Dev team to work in time, we don't even know why they are not completing the items in the current Sprint.

If the ScrumMaster is able to remove thos blockers and the team feels much better now, everything can continue 'normally'; in the other hand, if the ScrumMaster isn't still able to remove those blockers and the Dev Team feels the work can't be done, they can work with the PO. Remember that PO makes decisions sometimes with an imput from Devs Team or ScrumMaster.

Luis Javier Peris Morillo
06:34 pm November 11, 2013

Hi Derek,

it is really the most generic and in any case I see it as correct. If you simply states that the team can not complete all user stories, the team must create an impediment and is the Scrum Master who must face and try to solve it. Depending on the reason which hinders complete user stories Scrum Master may or may not resolve the impediment. In the case that the impediment is a bad estimate, the Product Owner must be notified and the scope of the user stories would be renegotiated between the PO and the development team.

Regards.

Alex A. Gurbuz
11:57 am September 10, 2014

This doesn't seem to be an impediment and isn't anything to do with SM I reckon.
It should be discussed between DT and PO

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