Part-time team members
There is a Development Team member who does not work full-time. He makes himself available for almost all Events excepts for 2 Daily Scrums per week (works roughly 3 days per week).
This mostly works fine, however I have noticed lapses in communication due to the incomplete transparency of the situation and of course there are 2 days a week where there is a missed opportunity to inspect and adapt with the entire team present.
Personally I would prefer to have all full-timers and have voiced my opinion, however this is not a practical reality for us at this stage and I greatly appreciate the value this person adds to the team. He is a great developer.
Does anyone have any guidance for this situation or part-time situations in general?
I would also be interested to hear about other peoples experiences working with part-time members in Scrum.
If a Development Team can't take something for granted...such as the availability of a team member...then they must plan accordingly. In other words, the team should formulate each Sprint Plan to take projected availability into account.
If a Sprint Plan consists largely of tasks, this could mean planning in certain tasks in which the part-time team member is brought up to speed, or otherwise engaged in peer activities that facilitate knowledge sharing.
It is similar to the situation that I experience with some people working from home one or twice a week.
It is not ideal but some ways we dealt with is:
1. Email the update to SM and SM updates the team
2. Phone in during the scrum
It is not a show stopper
On the team of 8 there is always someone who will be off sick or working from home or whatever, so you need to be flexible to accommodate.