Definition of "impediment"

[DominikMaximini]

The chapter "People and Change" defines the term "impediment" as follows: "An impediment in Scrum
is anything that blocks or slows down progress"

I learned a slightly different definition. The definition above defines the word "problem". If the problem can be solved by the Developers & Product Owner alone, then it just is a problem and subject to self-management. If it canNOT be solved by the Developers & PO, it becomes an impediment and the responsibility of the Scrum Master. These impediments can range from team-building, to missing test servers, or organizational processes.

Therefore, I recommend changing the sentence above as follows: "An impediment in Scrum
is anything that blocks or slows down progress and cannot be solved by the Developers & Product Owner alone."

[ViralGoodAgile]

Thank you for bringing this up, @DominikMaximini

[rjocham]

@DominikMaximini good catch. This is how I actually describe it. On the todo list. Thanks!

[fabriciusdirk]

"Is anything" is a bad idea imo. Do you track people as impediment? Mindset? Culture? An impediment is "dependency, process, budget constraint, or tool/code" to me at least. Maybe I miss some, but "anything" it's not.

[ViralGoodAgile]

Hi folks, thank you. We will consider the ideas and critiques from here for the September 2025 update. Many thanks.

[rjocham]

Is addressed in the next release.