Scrum Development Team - Adding 10th one.
I have a query on adding team members to scrum team. Trying to understand with an example.
"I am working in a health IT project team and need to deliver an increment as part of a Healthcare reform mandate. (product must go live without any delay to meet federal mandates)
There are 10 tasks in sprint backlog and all our Dev teams are fully engaged with that(say we have 9 folks working in that sprint). Suddenly we came across a critical technical issue which is not resolvable by our current DEV team. We think one person who is working with another team can help us to resolve (since he faced the issue before - assume he faced the issue when he was in another organization) but he also need some time to understand the developments to fix the issue. In this case can we borrow him as a 10th resource in our team?
I just want to give this example because, say current organization 'A' do not have any details/documentation of the particular issue.
Again, we need to consider him as an outside helper for the scrum team or another scrum member who has responsibilities of the product.
I think he may be considered as outside helper, but would like to know what is the difference between outside helper and 10th team member if he code from scratch or fix the issue in his own way?
Arun,
It is certainly permissible to arrange for subject matter experts outside of the team to provide assistance to the team. What is strongly suggested is that this "outside expert" not complete any work, but collaborate with 1 or more Development Team members on the solution.
It is important that the development team not accept any sprint work dependent upon the availability of the outside SME unless that SME has capacity to work with the team.
Adding them to the team is a poor option. It creates variability within the team, and reinforces silos of information within the organization.
Having them perform the work (code/test) is also a poor option, because it does not address the knowledge gap within the current Dev team.
> We think one person who is working with another team can help us to resolve
Is that other team working on the same healthcare reform product as your team?
Hi Lan. Thanks for looking into my query.
It can be another feature of same product (like benefit year process or calendar year process etc); but the other person is a Techie with all necessary technical skills and prior experiences.
But my question was more on the technical side. How to fix a technical issue in short period of time within the scrum frame work - by utilizing outside help.
So the 'responsible' development team member himself needs to correct the code with the guidance of external member or we can allow the other person to code and fix. This is the query I have.
Sorry, if the question not make sense!!!
Thanks Timothy for the help in understanding the concept. So its individual team member (who was responsible for that issue) needs to code and fix instead of having the other person to touch the code. That will be fruitful for self organization and cross-functional excellence as you advised.
If the requisite skills are to be found in another team working on the same product, then those teams should consider replanning their work instead of moving team members around. Variability in team structure is best avoided, as Tim has mentioned.
Thanks Lan. It makes sense.