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Roadblocks are impediments that prevent the Scrum Team from completing Stories and tasks. The Scrum Master is charged with removing or creating a workaround for the Roadblocks.

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Quick reference

Roadblocks

Roadblocks are impediments that prevent the Scrum Team from completing Stories and tasks. The Scrum Master is charged with removing or creating a workaround for the Roadblocks.

When to Use Removing Roadblocks

Some Sprints will not have any Roadblocks, others will have many. Whenever a Roadblock is identified by the Scrum Team, the Scrum Master must work to remove it.

Instructions

  • Roadblocks are anything outside the Scrum Team’s control that prevents a Scrum Team member from working at full capacity.
    • If the Roadblock is “internal” to the team, the Scrum Master may need to facilitate a team meeting to resolve the issue.
  • Roadblocks are identified by Scrum Team members during Sprint Planning Meeting or the Scrum Meetings.
  • The Scrum Master is responsible for removing or developing a workaround for Roadblocks. 
    • The Scrum Master will often enlist the aid of the project sponsor or Product Owner to address Roadblocks that are caused by organizational departments, internal policies, or procedures.
    • Obviously, some Roadblocks are there for a reason and should not be removed. For instance, a Scrum Team member might identify the requirement to abide by safety precautions when conducting experiments using high power as a Roadblock. However, the Scrum Master should not seek to avoid those procedures, but rather seek to find ways to make them easier to comply with.
    • This is a serious enabler of the success of the Agile/Scrum project and the Scrum Master needs to work on these quickly and not ignore them.
  • Some Scrum Team members are reluctant to identify Roadblocks because they feel it conveys weakness or ignorance on their part. The Scrum Master should investigate any Story or task that has been in the WIP column for two days or more to determine why it has not been completed. Most of the time there is a Roadblock involved. Document it on the Scrum Board then work to resolve it.
  • Roadblock resolution may require some creativity on the part of the Scrum Master. Make sure you understand what the Scrum Team member wants to do. Many times there is an easy workaround that does not require “dismantling” the Roadblock.
  • Ensure you are solving the real problem, the Roadblock may be stated in terms of a symptom of the problem. Investigate to understand.
    • A Roadblock may be stated as material shortages prevent making test samples.  When the real Roadblock is the standard Purchasing procedures do not allow for expedited deliveries.
  • Resolution of Roadblocks normally requires the Scrum Master to work with others outside the Scrum Team.
    • May need to leverage Product Owner relationships to get buying.
    • Often requires “political” skills to resolve the Roadblock if the workaround impacts the “turf” of a senior manager or a department.
    • Standard business processes are not compatible with the Agile/Scrum “self-organizing” team model and the procedures and systems do not allow the team to do what it wants to do.

Hints and Tips

  • If this project is one of the first few Agile/Scrum projects in the organization, expect many Roadblocks since the business systems and procedures are not aligned around the Agile/Scrum approach. Over time, the workarounds will become standard practice and the number of Roadblocks should reduce.
  • It often requires some creative brainstorming to create workarounds for Roadblocks that are embedded in management procedures and policies. You may need to redefine the Story or the tasks to avoid the problem.
  • Scrum Masters, it feels like all anyone on the team does is complain to you about what they can’t do. That is the nature of the job. Deal with it.
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  • 00:03 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 I want to focus on roadblocks and their removal for the next few minutes.
  • 00:09 Roadblocks are the term used in Agile/Scrum projects for
  • 00:13 issues that can't be resolved by the Agile team.
  • 00:16 To quickly review, these are anything external to the team that prevents
  • 00:20 a Scrum Team member from working at full capacity.
  • 00:23 Scrum team members identify roadblocks as they're planning and
  • 00:27 executing the stories and they report them at the scrum team meetings.
  • 00:32 Of course,
  • 00:32 the first meeting that they can report them is at the sprint planning meeting.
  • 00:36 From then on, they can ensure that they are placed on the Scrum Board during any
  • 00:41 scrum team meeting.
  • 00:42 The scrum master is responsible for resolving the roadblocks, and
  • 00:46 either making them go away or creating a workaround.
  • 00:49 On projects that experience many roadblocks,
  • 00:52 this can become a full time job for the scrum master.
  • 00:54 They will often seek for help from the product owner for
  • 00:57 working with stakeholders to resolve roadblocks.
  • 01:00 The product owner already has a relationship with the stakeholder and
  • 01:04 knows how best to position the issue in order to win the support and
  • 01:07 the buy-in from the stakeholder.
  • 01:09 In my experience, organizations just starting out with Agile/Scrum will
  • 01:13 have many roadblocks, since the organization's standard
  • 01:16 approach of accomplishing work is usually very different from the Agile scrum model.
  • 01:20 Over time, as roadblock resolution gets determined, and the organization learns
  • 01:25 more about Agile/Scrum through the sprint retrospective meetings,
  • 01:29 the roadblocks are permanently eliminated.
  • 01:31 A good cue for the scrum master to discover if an unreported roadblock is
  • 01:36 causing difficulty for the scrum team member is when a story or
  • 01:40 task stays in the WIP column for more than just two days.
  • 01:43 If the tasks are sized well, they should be completed within one day.
  • 01:46 So that means that they shouldn't be carried over to a second day.
  • 01:50 If that is happening, the scrum master needs to spend time with the scrum team
  • 01:55 member to analyze what is causing the slowdown and identify the roadblock.
  • 01:59 So what should a scrum master do if someone places a roadblock in the Scrum
  • 02:04 roadblock column?
  • 02:05 First, take it seriously.
  • 02:07 The scrum master is responsible for either eliminating the roadblock or
  • 02:11 developing a workaround, they need to do their job.
  • 02:13 Second, investigate it.
  • 02:14 Talk to the scrum team members to be certain that you understand what they were
  • 02:19 trying to do, why they need to do it, and
  • 02:22 what prevents them from doing that work efficiently.
  • 02:25 Be careful,
  • 02:26 sometimes the scrum team member will state the roadblock in a manner that
  • 02:30 they want it resolved without saying what was really the problem.
  • 02:34 For example, the scrum team member may write the roadblock as, I'm not allowed to
  • 02:39 visit supplier XYZ, while the real problem is a material shortage and
  • 02:42 they believe the best way to resolve that roadblock is with a road trip.
  • 02:46 However, the best way to resolve the roadblock may actually be to place
  • 02:50 an expedited purchase order.
  • 02:52 Now, the scrum master must resolve this issue.
  • 02:55 It will usually require work with people outside the team,
  • 02:58 since roadblocks by definition are not within the authority of the scrum team.
  • 03:03 Sometimes, the organization is not being responsive to request from scrum team
  • 03:07 members because it doesn't understand the Agile/ Scrum process.
  • 03:10 The scrum master must educate them.
  • 03:12 Sometimes, the organization's procedures or
  • 03:15 systems are not compatible with what the scrum team needs to do the work.
  • 03:20 Either get a waiver or work around so that the team can proceed.
  • 03:23 And sometimes, it's just plain politics.
  • 03:26 Someone does not want to give up access or control in an area.
  • 03:29 At that time, the scrum master must exert the appropriate political skills to
  • 03:34 deal with it.
  • 03:35 This will often mean bringing in an additional advocate or
  • 03:38 sponsor to overcome the resistance.
  • 03:40 Keep in mind that internal team issues and
  • 03:42 squabbles are not roadblocks in the classic Agile/Scrum sense.
  • 03:45 They certainly can slow down the project, but
  • 03:48 the self organizing team should resolve it internally.
  • 03:51 With that said, most of the time, the scrum master must step in and
  • 03:55 facilitate that process.
  • 03:57 Let me go through a few examples of roadblocks I've seen in the past and
  • 04:01 what we did with them.
  • 04:02 The first one is all too common.
  • 04:04 A manager had contacted a scrum team member and
  • 04:07 directed them to do some other activity that was not part of the sprint.
  • 04:11 The real roadblock is a lack of understanding by the manager.
  • 04:13 And the resolution is for the scrum master to educate the manager and
  • 04:17 possibly help them identify an alternative resource,
  • 04:21 so that the scrum team member can stay focused on the sprint.
  • 04:24 If the education effort doesn't work,
  • 04:27 the scrum master may need to bring in the sponsor to overrule the manager.
  • 04:32 The next one is a material shortage that prevented the team from creating test
  • 04:37 samples.
  • 04:37 The real problem was that purchase practices didn't operate in the speed of
  • 04:42 a sprint.
  • 04:43 The solution in this case was for the scrum master to meet with the purchasing
  • 04:47 manager and find a way to expedite the procurement.
  • 04:50 The third one was a case where the scrum team member, once they actually started
  • 04:54 doing the work on the story, realize that the demo criteria was unclear.
  • 04:59 In this case, the product owner did not know how to answer that question,
  • 05:03 so the product owner had to go back to the stakeholder to get an answer
  • 05:07 to the question.
  • 05:08 My last one is an interesting one.
  • 05:10 The scrum team roadblock was that they were not permitted to do testing on
  • 05:14 the operating system.
  • 05:15 They just figured that they would be allowed to have access to a live system.
  • 05:19 However, the system involved was used in the management of a major portion of
  • 05:23 the organization and no changes were allowed to that system unless they had
  • 05:28 already been thoroughly tested and documented.
  • 05:30 There was some significant compliance risks to the business if the system did
  • 05:35 not operate correctly.
  • 05:36 In this case, the real roadblock was that the scrum team did not identify
  • 05:40 infrastructure story of creating a development and test system where they
  • 05:44 could develop their new features and ensure that they work properly.
  • 05:48 The resolution was actually to stop and
  • 05:50 add infrastructure stories to the sprint backlog.
  • 05:53 It caused a burn-up condition and
  • 05:55 the sprint did not complete its entire backlog in that sprint.
  • 05:59 But the leftover items were brought back into the overall product backlog and
  • 06:04 prioritized into the next sprint.
  • 06:05 The scrum master owns roadblock resolution.
  • 06:08 When the scrum team identifies one, the scrum master
  • 06:13 needs to get on it right away and find a workaround.

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