Category Archives: impediments

Charlotte Apr 2014: Public impediments

The following impediments were identified by the Charlotte CSM class this week.  Again, we may have dups, although that probably is an indicator of relatively higher occurence. Business – IT not aligned Poor test practices Set date before project begins Over documentation Poor communication Unclear roles Lack of resources Disengaged customer Uncontrolled team member egos […]

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Question: Advice to a beginning ScrumMaster

Question: “I am a beginning ScrumMaster in a tough situation. I have some ideas, but I am unsure what to do, and unsure what to do first. What can you suggest?” Answer: I think this is common. In reality, there is no end to the things a ScrumMaster can do to help the team. So, […]

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Halifax: Public Impediment List

As some of you know, I am a strong proponent of aggressively attacking the impediments.  It starts, I think, with a good public impediment list. So, as examples, here are the impediments identified by the class in Halifax. Team is working on too many things No prioritized backlog Uninvolved PO Keeping everyone in the loop […]

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Public Impediments – Charlotte March 2014

We are a strong advocate of a public impediment list.  Why?  There are many reasons, but my top 3 are: Team members know when to tell and when not to tell the ScrumMaster about a new impediment Assuming some attempt at prioritization has been made, the Team knows when to give the SM feedback about […]

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Public Impediment List – Charleston Mar 2014

I am a big advocate of each team having a public impediment list.  Elsewhere I describe that in more detail, and describe some issues with it.  The key thing: the main purpose of the list is to enable us to fix the ‘best’ impediment faster or sooner.  We don’t just have a list to do […]

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Impediments – Raleigh-Durham Feb 2014

I really want to advocate again that we must make the impediments visible in a public impediment list.  And never stop aggressively attacking them.  If you prefer to call it ‘our list of things to improve on,’ I won’t arrest you. Here’s the list the group made in this class.  They are not on order, […]

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The Retrospective and uncovering the best impediments

I chuckle when I say ‘best’ impediments.  Because, by its nature, an impediment is something that is slowing the team down.  It is ‘bad.’ But, to get better, the Team must focus on the most important things first.  And this is true for impediments.  We must fix the most important impediment first. It is human […]

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Impediments – Charlotte Class Jan 2-3

Here are some impediments that were identified. Lack of awareness of other projects Unwillingness to say ‘no’ Clearing plate of current projects Poorly prioritized projects by management Pulled off project Poorly defined reqs Access to stakeholder / SME Reaction to rapid market changes / demands Budget ? People –> Teams In addition, these impediments were […]

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Impediments – Charlotte December Course

I am an advocate of a public impediment list.  The ScrumMaster must always be working on the top impediment until the Team is perfect (and it is never perfect). The value of that can be seen when the Team has doubled (or increased) their productivity or velocity. The Team must be creative and aggressive in […]

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Impediment List – Charlotte Class Nov 2013

Here are the impediments the Charlotte class identified.  Each impediment may be useful to you. Too little transparency No finalized requirements No communication SME Availability Missing Required Technology Resistance to a common goal Unrealistic expectations Outside pressures Vague requirements Lack of resources Lack of money Bad estimates Hiding problems Not crying wolf soon enough!! Conflict […]

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