You are leading an agile transformation for a financial services organization. After four months, three of your five scrum teams have adapted well, but two teams continue to struggle with completing their sprint commitments. Analysis shows these teams have significant dependencies on a legacy system team that works in two-week cycles but doesn't use agile practices. The legacy team cannot attend daily standups or sprint ceremonies due to their own schedule. This dependency causes delays in 60% of the struggling teams' stories. Senior management is pressuring you to show improved velocity metrics. What is the most effective approach to address this systemic impediment?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is B. Option B is correct because it addresses the structural impediment by removing the dependency through organizational design, aligning with ECO Process Task 2.2 (manage communications) and Process Task 4.3 (support team performance by removing impediments). Cross-functional teams are a core agile principle that enables autonomy and flow. While this requires leadership support, it provides a sustainable solution that eliminates the root cause rather than managing symptoms. Option D is the main distractor and appears reasonable for coordination, but it merely synchronizes the problem rather than solving it—teams still wait on dependencies and cannot truly self-organize. It also reinforces siloed structures. Option A puts the burden on teams to work around a systemic issue rather than removing the impediment. Option C adds coordination overhead without addressing the fundamental structural problem.

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