The Scrum Field Guide: Practical Advice for Your First Year

Chapter 10. Core Hours

Scrum teams should work together as much as possible, ideally in a co-located space. This drives communication efficiencies, collaboration, and collective code ownership. But what do we do when some team members like to arrive at 7 a.m. and others like to arrive at 11 a.m.? What about end-of-day scenarios and lunch time?

While these may seem like trivial things, for many teams, they are not. In fact, a seemingly harmless and small impediment like core hours can sink an entire team. That’s what nearly happened in the story that follows, when a more senior developer had an issue with a young developer’s perceived lack of dedication to the team and the company nearly tore the team apart.

The Story

Russ was a young developer, ...