Succeeding with Agile

Rely On Specialists but Sparingly

A common misconception is that everyone on a Scrum team must be a generalist—equally good at all technologies and disciplines—rather than a specialist in one. This is simply not true. What I find surprising about this myth is that every sandwich shop in the world has figured out how to handle specialists, yet we in the software industry still struggle with the question.

My favorite sandwich shop is the Beach Hut Deli in Folsom, California. I’ve spent enough lunches there to notice that they have three types of employees: order takers, sandwich makers, and floaters. The order takers work the counter, writing each sandwich order on a slip of paper that is passed back to the sandwich makers. Sandwich makers work ...