The Scrum Master's role is to be a servant-leader who coaches the team and helps remove impediments. When a team cannot complete items to a desired quality standard due to environmental or tooling constraints, the Scrum Master has two primary responsibilities: ensuring transparency and fostering improvement.

First, the team must be transparent about what it can realistically achieve. This is done by establishing a Definition of Done (DoD) that reflects the team's current capabilities and context (D). This ensures everyone understands what "Done" means for any Increment produced.

Second, the Scrum Master must coach the team to address these shortcomings over time (A). This involves helping them identify and acquire the necessary skills, tools, and environmental improvements, thereby enabling the DoD to become more stringent in the future.

B. Refocusing an entire Sprint on the environment instead of delivering an Increment is an extreme measure. Work to improve the environment should be part of the Product Backlog and prioritized accordingly.

C. Accepting partially done work violates the core principle of Scrum, which is to deliver a usable, "Done" Increment. This creates technical debt and reduces transparency.

E. A lack of tools is an impediment to be overcome, not a reason to abandon the Scrum framework. The Scrum Master's role is to help the team navigate such challenges.

1. Schwaber

K.

& Sutherland

J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Scrum.org.

On the Scrum Master's Role (supports A): "The Scrum Master serves the Scrum Team in several ways

including: Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality; ... Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress." (p. 6). This directly supports coaching the team to improve its environment.

On the Definition of Done (supports D): "If the Definition of Done for an increment is part of the standards of the organization

all Scrum Teams must follow it as a minimum. If it is not an organizational standard

the Scrum Team must create a Definition of Done appropriate for the product." (p. 9). This supports creating a realistic DoD based on current circumstances.

On Increments (refutes C): "In order to provide value

the Increment must be usable." (p. 9). Partially done work is not usable and therefore does not constitute a valid Increment.

2. Stray

V.

Sjøberg

D. I.

& Dybå

T. (2016). Understanding the Definition of Done: A Case Study in a Small Software Company. In Proceedings of the 10th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM '16). Association for Computing Machinery

New York

NY

USA

Article 59

1–10. https://doi.org/10.1145/2961111.2962626

Section 4.1

"The DoD as a Checklist": The paper highlights that the DoD makes quality requirements explicit and creates transparency. It states

"The DoD makes explicit what is required for a PBI to be considered complete... This helps create transparency..." This supports the need for a clear

achievable DoD (D) to ensure transparency about the Increment's state. The paper also discusses the evolution of the DoD

which aligns with the continuous improvement aspect of coaching (A).