How to Address Delivery Failure As a Scrum Master?
Your team has suffered a delivery failure. You are expected to help your team fix the situation. Here's a step by step approach you can use.
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Q: A team within my organization faces a tight deadline for delivering critical features this year. They lack a robust requirements gathering process, suffer from low confidence from product management (due to a previous delivery failure), and experience dysfunctional team dynamics. As a scrum master, how can I best address these challenges and facilitate their success? Your expertise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the question.
Let me glean what’s important here:
A delivery failure
Broken trust
Dysfunctional team
Critical deadline
How’d I fix this?
I've spent 2 decades working with Scrum/Agile teams, and what I've learned about questions like this is:
The more urgent the situation seems, the more important it is to slow down and look deeper.
Why?
Because you don’t want to treat a fever without understanding its cause. You might get temporary relief, but you're likely missing the real issue.
I'll be honest, a lot is missing from this question.
Context. Important details. Necessary background.
But that's exactly why this question is perfect for teaching something valuable: How to systematically investigate and address “delivery failures” when you don't have all the puzzle pieces.
No theory.
No best practice.
But a specific sequence of steps.
In today’s post, I will share a process I’d use if I were invited to resolve this delivery crisis.
Let’s get started.
Step#1: Prioritize the “business” problem
The first thing we need to do is cut through the noise.
There's a lot wrong here in your situation:
team dynamics
requirements
trust issues
But there's only one thing that matters, and that is:
“The delivery failure.”
Why?
Because that's what's costing the business money.
That's what's creating anxiety.
And that's what's driving the urgency.
When everything appears broken, including the process, the product, and the business need, you prioritize the business need.
We start there.
Not with team-building exercises.
Not with process improvements.
We start with understanding why the “delivery” failed.
Because that's the business problem.
In business, money talks. Everything else listens.
Step#2: Initial Analysis
After identifying the business problem, it's time to understand what actually happened during the previous delivery failure.
You need clarity before you can do anything here.
So, conduct a thorough but impartial investigation.
Remember to gather evidence, not opinions.
1. Start by collecting objective data:
what was promised vs. what was delivered?
when was it due vs. when was it completed?
which specific features or requirements were not met?
what metrics show the impact of the failure?
2. Talk to everyone involved, privately and 1:1:
Team members (PO, developers, testers, designers)
Product Management
Stakeholders
Previous Scrum Master (if applicable)
3. Ask open-ended questions like:
"What do you believe contributed to the delivery challenges?"
"What was working well before things went off track?"
"If you could change one thing about that project, what would it be?"
As you collect information, you will notice some patterns emerging. It’s possible that requirements changed frequently. Technical debt might have slowed the development, or interdependencies with other teams may have created bottlenecks.
Document these patterns without judgment. They are clues, not conclusions.
Beware of the obvious explanation.
The easiest explanation is rarely the complete one. If everyone says "we didn't have enough time," then you know that you have to dig deeper. Ask:
Why wasn't the timeline realistic?
Why wasn't this identified sooner?
We are NOT just trying to find the “root cause.” We are trying to understand the “system” that produced the failure.
Patterns will point you to that systemic issue that needs to be addressed.
Also, this step will help you build a shared understanding of what went wrong. Without it, you’re just guessing, and guessing doesn’t fix delivery failures.
So!
Take your time here.
Step#3: Map dependencies
Once you understand what happened, it's time to visualize the complex relationships that impact your team's delivery capability.