A team recently adopted agile. At daily standups they raised concerns about delays. The project leader worked with the product owner for feature clarity, then instructed the team to fast-track all features. Sprints are finishing but deliver fewer features or lower quality. What should the project leader have done to improve outcomes?

The correct answer is empowering the team. In agile, the team is self-organizing and cross-functional. The project leader (often a Scrum Master or Agile Coach in such a scenario) should facilitate the team's ability to identify and resolve issues, rather than dictating solutions. By empowering them to improve their processes, tools, and interactions, the team can collaboratively find sustainable solutions to their delivery and quality issues. Asking the team to create an impediment log is a good practice, but it's a tool, not the full solution to the underlying problem of low quality and missed features. Directing solutions removes team autonomy and might not address the root causes effectively. Adding impediments as backlog items can be appropriate for larger, more complex impediments, but it doesn't address the immediate need for the team to improve its own operational effectiveness and problem-solving capabilities.