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PMP Practice: Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team

Question 1 of 4 in Address and Remove Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers for the Team

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Cedar Okonkwo is the project manager for an agile team at Peppermill Aerospace developing a mobile meditation app. During the daily standup, three developers mention they are blocked waiting for API access credentials from the IT security team. The developers have submitted requests through the standard ticketing system five days ago but have received no response. The current sprint ends in four days, and the blocked work represents 40% of the sprint commitment. Luna knows the IT security manager, Carlos Feng, from a previous cross-functional initiative where they collaborated successfully.
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Correct answer: Reach out directly to Carlos Feng using the existing professional relationship to expedite the credential provisioning and understand any security concerns that may be causing the delay

Explanation

The project manager's role in an agile environment includes actively removing impediments that block the team's progress. Luna has a direct network connection to the person who can resolve this blocker and five days have already passed without progress through formal channels. Using this professional relationship to directly engage Carlos is the most effective immediate action because it leverages existing trust and rapport to quickly understand the delay and facilitate resolution. The sprint ends in four days and 40% of committed work is at risk, making speed essential. This exemplifies servant leadership by actively removing obstacles rather than waiting for processes to resolve themselves or delegating the problem elsewhere.

**Why not A:** Adding the impediment to the backlog and waiting for the retrospective is too slow. The sprint ends in four days and 40% of committed work is blocked. Retrospectives address process improvements for future sprints, not urgent blockers threatening the current sprint's delivery.

**Why not C:** Escalating to the product owner delegates an impediment removal task that the PM can handle directly. The product owner manages product priorities, not cross-functional organizational blockers. The PM has a direct relationship with Carlos that can resolve this faster than routing through the product owner.

**Why not D:** Advising the team to work on other stories while waiting is passive and does not remove the impediment. With 40% of the sprint commitment at risk and five days already elapsed without response through formal channels, the PM must take proactive action to engage the blocking party directly.

Key Concept

This question covers Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team under Address and Remove Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers for the Team (People).

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