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Use of Overtime with Scrum

Last post 09:31 pm March 15, 2019 by Ian Mitchell
2 replies
03:51 pm March 15, 2019

Is it ever appropriate for Scrum teams to put in overtime*? If so, what would be a situation where a team should do so? Who makes the decision about when and how to work overtime?

*For the purposes of this post, let's assume that we work at a company in the United States where overtime is considered anything over 40 hours per week.


08:48 pm March 15, 2019

Unsure what you mean by "appropriate", but any decision to work overtime should solely be a team-based decision, and never coming from outside the team.   

As a Scrum Master, I have responsibility to protect the Development Team from such influence/interference regarding the # of hours worked.

From the Scrum guide:

Development Teams are structured and empowered by the organization to organize and manage their own work.

Also, one of the Agile Principles states that:

Agile processes promote sustainable development.  The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

It is clear that working overtime does not support the goals of sustainable development and constant pace.   That said, if the team desires to work extra in order to meet certain objectives/goals, and it is an exception to their normal work process, I would support them.


09:31 pm March 15, 2019

Is it ever appropriate for Scrum teams to put in overtime*? If so, what would be a situation where a team should do so? Who makes the decision about when and how to work overtime?

*For the purposes of this post, let's assume that we work at a company in the United States where overtime is considered anything over 40 hours per week.

The Scrum Guide says that people personally commit to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team. Some may choose to work 20 hours and some may choose to work 50, for example.

Now suppose the definition of "overtime" you describe was a significant influence on this. What would that mean for the ability of team members to decide on a time commitment that is reasonable and sustainable to them?


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