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how to add new developer to srcum team

Last post 05:34 am August 14, 2018 by Karen Grigoryan
6 replies
02:05 pm August 11, 2018

Hi All,

Let's assume in the scrum team there are 9 developers.

For the next Sprint, the team needs to involve a "server admin",

How should we solve this situation?

Can we add this new developer to the scrum team and have 10 developers, or 

We must create a different sprint?

 

thank you for your efforts and time.

regards, Karen


03:17 pm August 11, 2018

According to the Scrum Guide:

Optimal Development Team size is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a Sprint…



Having more than nine members requires too much coordination. Large Development Teams generate too much complexity for an empirical process to be useful.

I don't interpret this as strictly forbidding a Development Team size of 10, but it does strongly hint that you shouldn't normally do it. Taking it further, perhaps 9 is already too many.

But my challenge to you isn't about the size of the team, but more about the way the team is changing.

Why is this skill only required in the team this one time? Will the team require this skill in the future? Regularly changing teams to handle issues for one Sprint is probably counter-productive.

How do the Development Team want to resolve this issue? Do they want to have access to a server admin, to provide specialist assistance when it is required? Do they want a server admin to coach them so that they can fulfil some or all of these tasks themselves? Do they agree that the server admin's work is something that their team should be responsible for? Do the team feel they have too many members with skills that are going unused or aren't necessary for the team's objectives?

Do the team consider it worthwhile to reorganize into separate, smaller teams; or even have some of its members stop working on this product altogether?

Teams should be able to self-organize in order to work towards a common goal, and produce a releasable ("Done") Increment within a single Sprint. With this in mind, what do the team decide?


04:48 pm August 11, 2018

For the next Sprint, the team needs to involve a "server admin",

Does the team lack server administration skills, or just the authorization to make administrative changes?

In either case, how have they been able to create increments of release standard in earlier sprints? Why has server administration become necessary only now?


04:45 pm August 13, 2018

Simon Mayer and Ian Mitchell, 

Thank you for your answers, the title ''Server Admin' was mentioned just for example.

I just wanted to understand is it hard-fixed the number of developers to be max 9.

Also, is it acceptable to re-construct the team from sprint to sprint.

For example : in the team 1 we have a db developer, and for the next sprint we do not need db developer in team 1.

But he is required in other team 2. 

Can we move this db developer from team 1 to team 2?


05:00 pm August 13, 2018

Karen,

It is wasteful to adjust the team rosters on a sprint by sprint basis.   There are significant benefits through working with stable teams, that are not realized when individuals are shuffled back and forth based on premature optimization.

Your scenario as presented seems to reinforce specialization as opposed to promoting cross-functionality.


06:31 pm August 13, 2018

I just wanted to understand is it hard-fixed the number of developers to be max 9.

No, it isn’t hard-fixed. The Scrum Guide has a section covering the matters which ought to be taken into consideration.

Also, is it acceptable to re-construct the team from sprint to sprint.

Development Teams ought to be self-organizing. They should not be reconstructed by external agency, but may revise their membership themselves. A team should not be afraid of change, but rather will seek to exercise control over it in a measured and managed way.


05:34 am August 14, 2018

Dear All,

Thank you for all your answers.

Thank you for your time and efforts,

regards, Karen


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