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Separate communication channel for technical resources

Last post 05:25 pm December 12, 2021 by Balaji Dhamodaran
5 replies
05:31 am December 10, 2021

Recently a new scrum team has been created and scrum master proposed to create a separate communication channel excluding scrum master and product owner for technical discussion.

I raised this question if this is even recommended in scrum to have a separate channel for only tech guys. What about transparency? 

I may be wrong but I need understand if this is a good to have a separate communication channel only for tech guys and excluding PO and SM?


07:23 pm December 10, 2021

The people that fall under the Developers accountability will naturally discuss items related to their work within the sprint outside of the Daily Scrum, as that event is time boxed to 15 minutes.  If the PO and/or SM are also undertaking Developers membership due to having the required expertise and capacity, then they will also be part of those types of discussions. 

I do not believe that there is a call to create a separate communications channel just for the developers as it is already naturally in place. 


08:25 pm December 10, 2021

Why would a Scrum Master propose or care about this?  This is something that the Developers should self-organize.  If they feel it is useful, who is to say it shouldn't happen?  However, as a Scrum Master I would be vigilant for indications that it is becoming an impediment to the Scrum Team's ability to execute within the Scrum Framework.  Then and only then does this become a Scrum Master responsibility to aid the team in removing impediments.


09:06 pm December 10, 2021

I'd tend to agree with Daniel here, although I can see some cases where a Scrum Master may propose it. One example would be a distributed team using a tool like Microsoft Teams or Slack. If the team is frequently exchanging messages on technical matters, it could not only be notification overload for the Scrum Master, but it could be difficult to see if there's something where the team truly needs the Scrum Master to provide coaching or facilitation or help with impediment removal.

I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a place to go for technical discussions, as long as the team is aware of who's monitoring that communication channel and where to go if they need to include the Product Owner or Scrum Master in a conversation. If the team hides there, it could be an impediment to transparency. By itself, though, it isn't necessarily a problem.


09:37 pm December 10, 2021

scrum master proposed to create a separate communication channel excluding scrum master and product owner for technical discussion.

What problem would this constraint solve?

  • Are the Scrum Master and Product Owner generating too much noise in the team, and inhibiting the Developers?
  • Are the Developers generating too much noise and irritating the SM & PO?
  • Do the Developers have a dependency on the SM & PO which the SM wishes to eliminate?

05:25 pm December 12, 2021

I raised this question if this is even recommended in scrum to have a separate channel for only tech guys. What about transparency? 

What impact will it have on Transparency about the state of the 3 artifacts(PB,SB, Increment) ? 


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