Strategies for integrating new members into agile teams and maximizing sprint performance

What to do when there are new team members who do not know how to carry out the sprint activities? In the agile approach, we work with teams where development team members don't always have the same skills. However, this is not necessarily a problem, but rather an advantage, as it allows us to effectively address sprint challenges.

During the execution of the sprint. It is important to avoid assigning all tasks to a few members, as this can be unsustainable and overload the work. Instead, it is essential to encourage collaboration among members, allowing them to collaborate in the development of activities instead of being mere spectators. Below are possible strategies to address this situation:

Some Options

• Provide training: Give the member the opportunity to train using the resources the organization has already developed, internal courses, tutorials, and online courses, and allow time to do so.
• Assign a mentor: Designate an experienced team member to mentor those members less familiar with the activities. The mentor will share their experiences, knowledge and answer questions, which will accelerate learning. To assign a mentor, the following activities can be followed: a) full assignment, where the mentor accompanies the member 100% of the time, b) 50% assignment, where the mentor provides accompaniment, but the learning member performs the work, and c) sporadic assignment, where the member goes to the mentor only for specific questions.
• Assign an external mentor to the team: If it is not possible to have a mentor within the team, an external expert mentor can be assigned to help guide the team member, so that the performance of the sprint is not affected.
• Foster collaboration: Promote collaboration and knowledge sharing among team members.
• Feedback: Provide regular and constructive feedback to help team members improve.

By applying these strategies, the team will be able to overcome the difficulties that arise when there are new members or do not know how to perform the sprint activities.