- 1. What Is the Agile Manifesto?
- 2. The Benefits and Advantages of Agile
- 3. What Is Agile Operations?
- 4. The Agile Software Development Life Cycle
- 5. Building an Agile Team Structure
- 6. A Guide to the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- 7. Agile and Lean Portfolio Management
- 8. Understanding Squads, Tribes, and Guilds
- 9. What Is Agile Transformation?
- 10. Themes, Epics, Stories, and Tasks in Agile
- 11. A Complete Guide to Agile Epics
- 12. How to Create User Stories
- 13. Agile Estimation: Understanding Story Points
- 14. Using Gantt Charts in Agile
- 15. Glossary
- 16. FAQs
- 1. What Is the Agile Manifesto?
- 2. The Benefits and Advantages of Agile
- 3. What Is Agile Operations?
- 4. The Agile Software Development Life Cycle
- 5. Building an Agile Team Structure
- 6. A Guide to the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- 7. Agile and Lean Portfolio Management
- 8. Understanding Squads, Tribes, and Guilds
- 9. What Is Agile Transformation?
- 10. Themes, Epics, Stories, and Tasks in Agile
- 11. A Complete Guide to Agile Epics
- 12. How to Create User Stories
- 13. Agile Estimation: Understanding Story Points
- 14. Using Gantt Charts in Agile
- 15. Glossary
- 16. FAQs
What Is an Agile Impediment?
In Agile software development, the definition of an Agile impediment is anything that slows down or hinders the productivity of a team, hence affecting the successful delivery of a product. Impediments are a normal occurrence in an Agile Scrum team and can occur at any time due to the complexity and dynamics involved in the product development process.
An impediment occurs in different forms. It could be a missing resource or a bug that pops up during development or testing. Additional Agile impediment examples include unresolved dependencies, a sick team member, business or customer-related roadblocks.
Most Agile impediments delay the progress of the project at hand. In this case, the Scrum master is responsible for identifying, tracking, and removing impediments. At other times, the team members can also play a part in identifying impediments.
Some common ways to tackle an Agile impediment
Agile impediments can be tackled in the following ways:
1. Make impediments visible
Rather than ignoring the impact of an impediment, it’s best to create an impediment log so your team can clearly visualize the obstacles in the way of work. An Agile impediment log is used to record, track and resolve a list of obstacles, challenges that delay the team’s performance.
The first step is to identify the impediments and get all team members to understand the impact of these impediments. Once the impediments are understood, they need to be written down and made publicly available for anyone to view. These lists of impediments are captured on an
Agile impediment board which helps in the visualization process.
2. Address the root cause of the impediments
Once the impediments are identified, the next step is to identify the root cause of the impediments. This is more effective than focusing on solving the impediment itself. Once the root cause of the impediments has been identified, the Scrum team begins to resolve the impediments.
3. Get senior leadership involved in resolving the impediment
The entire Scrum team needs to collaborate in order to identify the impediments that need to be resolved, starting from the highest priority impediments. Once an Agile impediment is resolved, the Scrum master then updates it in the impediment log.
Alex Zhezherau
Alex is Wrike’s Product Director, with over 10 years of expertise in product management and business development. Known for his hands-on approach and strategic vision, he is well versed in various project management methodologies — including Agile, Scrum, and Kanban — and how Wrike’s features complement them. Alex is passionate about entrepreneurship and turning complex challenges into opportunities.