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Project Management vocabulary · Risks & Issues

Blocker

Meaning in project management, with examples

/ˈblɑːkər/nounCore term

In project management, blocker means: Something that completely stops a person or team from continuing their work until it is removed, such as a missing approval, access or decision.

In Turkish: engel, engelleyici sorun, tıkanıklık

How it is used

Very common in daily stand-ups and agile teams: “Any blockers?” People raise, remove, clear or escalate blockers. The adjective is blocked: “I'm blocked on the API”. In Scrum books, the formal word is impediment.

Example sentences

  1. My only blocker is access to the production database; I've asked IT twice.

  2. This approval has become a blocker for three teams, so let's escalate it today.

Common collocations

  • raise a blocker
  • remove a blocker
  • any blockers
  • be blocked on
  • issueA problem that is already happening and affects the project, so someone needs to take action to solve it.
  • daily stand-upA very short daily team meeting, often 15 minutes, where each person shares progress, plans for the day and anything blocking their work.
  • escalateTo pass a problem, risk or decision to someone with more authority because it cannot be solved at the current level.
  • scrum masterIn Scrum, the person who helps the team and the organisation understand and use Scrum well, runs or supports the events and helps remove obstacles that slow the team down.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Risks & Issues

Practise with graded reading

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