Items (not part of the Sprint goal) don’t get finished
Let's say you have a team of 7 developers. In Sprint X, 5 of them work towards the Sprint goal (defined by the PO), but 2 of them work in items that are not part of the Sprint goal, but need to be done (e.g. configuration changes etc.) during that Sprint. The 5 developers deliver towards the Sprint goal, but 1 of the other 2 developers don't finish their work assigned. How do you handle that unfinished work in that situation?
How do you handle that unfinished work in that situation?
Any unfinished work should be reprioritized and added to the product backlog. In the sprint retrospective it is important to understand why this work could not be completed (you should have got an idea about it during the daily scrum). Then during the backlog refinement or sprint planning, take a call if this is to be done in the next sprint or deprioritized
but 2 of them work in items that are not part of the Sprint goal, but need to be done (e.g. configuration changes etc.) during that Sprint
If those things needed to be done during that Sprint, why weren't they a commitment for this team, or for another one?
but 1 of the other 2 developers don't finish their work assigned.
Scrum strongly encourages self-managing teams. The team should decide how much they can take on and complete. The wording 'work assigned' raises alarm bells.
The team takes responsibility for the work and also for any unfinished tasks,not individuals. Why don't other team members step in to help with the configuration work? From the description, it seems there is not a Scrum team, but rather developers grouped together."