I am often asked whether a Developer can support more than one Scrum Team. The answer is yes, but it's not ideal. Being on multiple teams means attending two (or more!) Sprint Plannings, two Sprint Reviews, two Retrospectives, and two sets of refinements. Not to mention two Daily Scrums—every single day.
It may be cross-functional, but it sounds exhausting.
Why Teams Try to Share People
When a Developer gets pulled across teams, it’s usually because the team is missing a specific skill. That creates a dependency, and dependencies slow everything down.
Scrum Teams are meant to be cross-functional so they can deliver a Done increment every Sprint without relying on people outside the team. Cross-functional simply means that the team isn’t sitting around waiting for a specialist to parachute in whenever something needs doing.
If the team depends on a specific skill every Sprint, then that skill belongs inside the team. If they only need a skill once in a blue moon, then they we don't need them on the team - they can request that work from another team when needed. We don't have to eliminate dependencies entirely, we just need to ensure that they aren't holding us back every Sprint.
Before signing up for multiple teams
Before you sign up to be on multiple Scrum teams at the same time as a Developer, ask whether members of the Scrum team can expand their skills.
This doesn’t mean expecting someone to become an expert overnight. It means incremental skill-building:
Shadowing a specialist
Pair programming
Knowledge sharing
Rotating responsibilities
Over time, the team reduces dependencies, boosts flexibility, and improves flow—all without burning out the person currently being passed around like a signed baseball.
Conclusion
Scrum thrives on focus, clarity, and team ownership. While it’s possible for Developers to support multiple teams, it’s rarely ideal—for them or for the organization. Instead, invest skill growth, right-size the product boundaries, and build teams that can deliver value independently, Sprint after Sprint.
Your Developers—and your customers—will thank you.