Impediments: Silent killer of agile teams

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Impediments: Silent killer of agile teams Pooja Wandile


I did xxx, I will do

yyy

I did xyz, I will do abc, I

don’t ve impediments

I did ssss, I will do

zzzz

I did xxx, I will do yyy but the

UX design is still awaited

I did ….., I will

do ,,,,,


So, what is an Impediment?


A blocker, an obstacle, an issue or a barrier that can block or slow down a team's progress and not help them being productive


Local impediments Inadequate skills Slow or unstable builds High tech debt Third party dependency Ineffective tools integration

Global/organization impediments Insufficient training Appraisal policies Conflicts and politics Delayed decisions Inadequate infrastructure

Types/Examples of impediments


Why raise impediments?

• Get out of the endless loop of impediments

• Enable the team to deal with issues early


Where are impediments hidden?

Slow or no movement of tasks Waiting for instructions

Mindset and Attitude Infrastructure


Unable to realize ‘something’ as an impediment. You cannot fix problems until you know they exist.

‘Culture fabric’ of the teamFear of being perceived as ineffective/incompetent‘Working on it, No need to discuss’Behavior issueNot serious enough to become an impedimentWaterfall to agile transformation

Difficulty in raising impediments


Hunting ground

• Daily Scrum• Sprint Reviews• Scrum of Scrums• Sprint Retrospectives• Agile Maturity Assessment• Metrics


Impediment impact diagram

By Ken Power


Levels of impediment management

Team members resolve issues

Scrum Master gets involved

Scrum Master can escalate to Scrum of Scrums

Escalated to executive stakeholders

Can get escalated to inter group stakeholders


Whose responsibility it is?

Team members, Scrum Master, Management


Speak outTrust is importantPrioritize issues by impact on valueBe sympathetic, especially with new teamsImpediments are real, don’t turn a blind eyeEscalate earlyPut a process in placeDefine and track impediment metrics

Lessons learned


Never hide impediments, escalate if not resolved in 1 working dayImportantly, make the impediments visible using impediment boardDon’t let the impediment backlog growDiscuss the root cause of the impediment during retrospection meetingDifferentiate between local and global impediments, some impediments

are beyond your controlDon't always depend on the Scrum master to resolve the impedimentEffectively manage impediments by logging, prioritizing and

systematically addressing themUse metrics such as turnaround time for managing impediments

Few tips


Thank You!!!@poojawkhttps://in.linkedin.com/in/pooja-wandile

Impediments: Silent killer of agile teams

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