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.
Thanks Roman, some good ideas there. I'll suggest them to the team.