sm-impediment-log

Impediment Log

Purpose

An impediment is anything outside the team's control that slows or blocks Sprint progress. The Scrum Master's job is to make them visible, get them assigned, and get them resolved — fast. An unlogged impediment is invisible to stakeholders. An impediment with no owner and no target date is a blocker in waiting. This skill makes logging fast and tracking honest.

Tool detection

1. Check for active mcp__azure-devops__* tools → $PM_TOOL = ado
2. If neither ADO nor Jira → $PM_TOOL = manual

Mode detection

The user is either:

• Logging a new impediment — phrases like "log this", "we have a blocker", "add an impediment"
• Reviewing open impediments — phrases like "what's open", "show impediments", "any overdue blockers"
• Resolving/updating an impediment — phrases like "that's resolved", "update the blocker", "close this impediment"

Handle each mode below.

Mode A — Log a new impediment

Collect the details

Gather (or ask for) the following:

Create the work item

ADO: use wit_create_work_item with type Impediment (if the process template supports it) or Issue. Set:

• Title: [BLOCKER] [title]
• Description: blocker description + impact
• Tags: impediment, plus escalation-needed if escalation is required
• Priority: 1 if Sprint goal is at risk, 2 otherwise
• Assigned To: owner
• Target Date (custom field or iteration target)

Link to the affected story using wit_work_items_link if an ID is available.

Manual: output a structured log entry:

Impediment logged — [DATE]

Title:    [title]
Affects:  [story or person]
Impact:   [what slips if unresolved]
Owner:    [name]
Resolve by: [date]
Escalate: [Yes / No]

Status: Open

Mode B — Review open impediments

ADO: use wit_query_by_wiql to find all items tagged impediment (or type Impediment/Issue) that are not Resolved/Closed.

Present as a triage table:

Open Impediments — [TEAM] — [DATE]

┌──────┬─────────────────────────────┬──────────┬──────────────┬──────────┐
│ ID   │ Title                       │ Owner    │ Resolve by   │ Status   │
├──────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────────┼──────────┤
│ #123 │ [title]                     │ [name]   │ [date]       │ Open     │
│ #124 │ [title]                     │ [name]   │ [date] ⚠ DUE │ Open     │
└──────┴─────────────────────────────┴──────────┴──────────────┴──────────┘

⚠  Overdue (past target date): [N]
⏳  Due within 2 days:          [N]
🔺  Escalation pending:         [N]

Flag:

• Any impediment past its target resolution date
• Any impediment that has been open for more than the Sprint length (may have been forgotten or abandoned)
• Any impediment marked for escalation with no escalation action recorded

Mode C — Resolve or update an impediment

Ask: "What is the ID (or title) of the impediment, and what is the resolution?"

ADO: use wit_update_work_item to:

• Set state to Resolved/Closed
• Add a comment via wit_add_work_item_comment: "Resolved [date]: [resolution summary]. Impediment was open for [N] days."

Manual: output:

Impediment closed — [DATE]

Title:      [title]
Resolution: [what was done]
Open for:   [N] days
Owner:      [name]

Step — Recurring impediment detection

After reviewing open impediments, check for patterns across the current and previous Sprint:

• Has the same type of blocker appeared more than once? (e.g., waiting on design sign-off, external API down, access not provisioned)
• Is the same team or person consistently the source of escalations?

If a pattern exists, surface it: "This is the third Sprint with an impediment waiting on [dependency]. This is worth raising in the next Retrospective as a systemic issue, not just an individual blocker."

Guardrails

• An impediment is outside the team's direct control — a developer who is stuck on a technical problem is not an impediment (it is a development challenge). An external dependency that has not responded in three days is an impediment.
• Never close an impediment without a resolution note — "closed" with no context is not useful in a retro or audit.
• If escalation is required, the SM should act immediately — do not log escalation and wait. Surface it to the right person.
• The impediment log is not a task board. Impediments should be resolved fast and closed — they should not become long-running work items. If an impediment cannot be resolved within a Sprint, it may be a structural issue requiring a different kind of action.