Conflict and impediment resolution - Identifying and prioritizing impediments

Learning Outcomes

After studying this article, you will be able to explain the difference between impediments, obstacles, and blockers. You will know how to identify impediments, apply criteria for prioritizing them, and use escalation paths where necessary. You will also understand the project manager’s and team’s responsibilities in monitoring, communicating, and removing obstacles—critical knowledge for high-performing project teams and the PMP exam.

PMP Syllabus

For PMP, you are required to understand how to address and remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers affecting project teams. This article focuses on the identification, prioritization, and management of impediments as part of supporting team performance and maintaining delivery momentum. Revise the following syllabus points:

  • Methods for identifying impediments, obstacles, and blockers (e.g., daily standups, impediment logs).
  • Principles and techniques for prioritizing impediments by severity and impact.
  • The distinction between impediments, risks, and issues.
  • Project manager and team roles in impediment resolution and escalation.
  • Using networks and escalation paths to remove obstacles beyond the team’s control.
  • Continuous reassessment and monitoring of existing and emerging impediments.

Test Your Knowledge

Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, remember to look more closely at that area during your revision.

  1. Which of the following is a blocker?
    1. An unclear requirement causing minor rework
    2. A stopped deployment because of missing approval
    3. An improvement suggestion not acted on
    4. Stakeholder requesting a status update
  2. What is usually addressed first during impediment resolution?
    1. Least expensive obstacle
    2. Blocker halting team progress
    3. Risks with highest probability
    4. Administrative tasks
  3. Who is primarily responsible for removing impediments on an agile team?
    1. Product owner
    2. Sponsor
    3. Scrum facilitator or project manager
    4. Senior stakeholder

Introduction

Project teams always encounter problems blocking or slowing progress. Quick identification and removal of impediments is critical to maintain productivity and deliver project outcomes. Prioritizing obstacles ensures effort is focused on the most damaging issues first—essential for effective project management and required for the PMP exam.

Defining Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers

Projects regularly face both minor and major disruptions. Distinguishing between obstacles, general impediments, and blockers is important for setting response priorities.

Key Term: Impediment
Any event, condition, or factor that restricts or delays a project team's progress towards objectives.

Key Term: Blocker
A type of impediment that completely halts progress for a person, team, or activity until it is removed.

Key Term: Obstacle
Any factor introducing inefficiency or delay, but not stopping all work.

Obstacles slow the team (e.g., slow review processes or resource delays). Blockers stop the team entirely (e.g., critical server outage, missing legal approval).

Relationship to Risks and Issues

It is important to distinguish between future risks, existing issues, and current impediments.

Key Term: Risk
An uncertain event or condition that could impact project objectives if it occurs.

Key Term: Issue
A problem or situation that has already occurred and requires immediate attention.

Risks may become impediments if not proactively managed. An unresolved issue can develop into a blocker if it disrupts essential workflow.

How to Identify Impediments

Impediment identification is a shared responsibility involving:

  • Daily team meetings (standups or status checks).
  • Feedback and direct reports from team members.
  • Observing workflow tools (e.g., Kanban boards, task lists, burndown charts).
  • Reviewing delivery metrics and key performance indicators.
  • Continuous open communication and psychological safety for reporting barriers.

All team members should raise any factor that slows or stops their work, regardless of perceived severity.

Prioritizing Impediments and Blockers

Facing multiple impediments, teams must prioritize to safeguard delivery and business value. The typical approach:

  1. Address blockers first: These stop critical work and threaten delivery timelines.
  2. Consider impact: Evaluate obstacles affecting dependencies or the critical path.
  3. Customer and compliance focus: Give priority to items with customer-facing or regulatory consequences.
  4. Quantitative metrics: Where possible, use data (e.g., days delayed, cost impact, number of team members affected).

Decisions on escalation or resource allocation should always be clear and transparent.

Worked Example 1.1

A software delivery team reports these during daily standup: (1) Database access denied, stopping all testing; (2) Documentation approval delayed by one week; (3) Two laptops unavailable for non-critical admin tasks.

Which impediment is the priority, and what action should the project manager take?

Answer:
The database access denial is a blocker halting essential team activities. It has the highest priority and should be escalated for urgent resolution. The other items are obstacles, but do not stop main workflow.

Team and Project Manager Roles in Impediment Resolution

The project manager (or Scrum facilitator in agile) has lead accountability for addressing impediments, especially any outside the team’s direct control.

  • Team members: Promptly flag obstacles, blockers, and workflow slowdowns.
  • Project manager/Scrum facilitator: Remove or escalate obstacles beyond team capacity. Act as a shield against outside distractions and coordinate support from other departments.

Key Term: Escalation Path
The pre-set process or authority structure for raising unresolved impediments to higher management or external parties.

Routine issues are handled at the team level, but significant or cross-functional impediments require escalation according to agreed governance.

Using Networks, Escalation Paths, and Organizational Support

Some impediments—especially those involving cross-team, organizational, or supplier dependencies—are not quickly resolved by the project team alone:

  • Use available networks: Contact enabling departments, solution experts, IT, HR, or vendors.
  • Refer to escalation paths: Defined in the project governance or communication plan.
  • Communicate status: Keep all team members informed about progress on removal, potential workarounds, and likely timelines.

Worked Example 1.2

A project has two severe obstacles: (1) Lack of compliance sign-off halting go-live; (2) Ongoing recurring minor support tickets requiring rework.

What should the escalation and prioritization process be for these two problems?

Answer:
The missing compliance sign-off is a blocker threatening a key milestone and must be escalated immediately using the project's escalation path, as it blocks delivery. The minor recurring support issues require attention, but do not prevent progress—these should be scheduled for later resolution.

Ongoing Monitoring and Re-Prioritization

Project impediments constantly change and new ones emerge as work progresses. Essential practices for effective response:

  • Review and update impediment logs at each team meeting.
  • Encourage open discussion so that emerging risks and issues are surfaced quickly.
  • Re-prioritize as problem severity, impact, or urgency changes.

Dealing with Multiple Ongoing Impediments

Not all obstacles will be resolved at once. When managing several:

  • Remove critical path or milestone-blocking obstacles first.
  • Address items that could cause schedule slippage.
  • After blockers are clear, focus on those affecting productivity, morale, or quality.

If necessary, implement temporary workarounds while a lasting solution is developed.

Exam Warning

Teams sometimes confuse small annoyances (obstacles) with true blockers. For PMP exam purposes, a blocker is an impediment that halts progress on high-priority deliverables or prevents the team from achieving essential outcomes. Immediate and decisive action is required for blockers.

Revision Tip

In team meetings, ensure every member is specifically asked about current obstacles or blockers, even if progress is ongoing. Routine check-ins are a reliable method to discover hidden impediments before they escalate.

Summary

Rapid and systematic identification, prioritization, and removal of impediments is essential to support team performance and keep project work on track. Critical and milestone-blocking obstacles should be addressed urgently through escalation paths if required, followed by timely attention to lower-severity issues. This enables predictable value delivery and supports PMP exam success.

Key Point Checklist

This article has covered the following key knowledge points:

  • Identifying and distinguishing impediments, obstacles, and blockers within project teams.
  • Encouraging open, continuous reporting to surface potential obstacles and blockers.
  • Ranking impediments based on objective severity and delivery impact.
  • Removing blockers affecting critical path and essential tasks before addressing minor obstacles.
  • Assigning responsibility: team members raise impediments; project manager or Scrum facilitator leads resolution or escalation.
  • Utilizing escalation paths, networks, or external support for problems beyond team control.
  • Maintaining up-to-date logs and adjusting priorities as work and circumstances develop.

Key Terms and Concepts

  • Impediment
  • Blocker
  • Obstacle
  • Risk
  • Issue
  • Escalation Path
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