Glossary · practices
Impediment
Any obstacle that slows or blocks a Scrum Team's progress toward its Sprint Goal, which the Scrum Master helps remove.
What it means
Impediments range from technical blockers, like a broken build, to organizational ones, like unavailable stakeholders or conflicting priorities from outside the team.
The Developers themselves resolve impediments they can control; the Scrum Master focuses on impediments that require organizational influence beyond the team's authority.
Common mistakes
Impediments raised at the Daily Scrum but not resolved quickly should be tracked visibly so they do not silently recur Sprint after Sprint.
Example
A shared staging environment is unavailable for two days; the Scrum Master escalates to the infrastructure team to restore access.