Having a new member join an existing project is a great idea, conceptually. After all, another set of hands writing code and testing scripts can speed up the development process and ease the workload on all current team members. In practice things though, this is rarely the case.

When a member drops in and out of a project midway through the development cycle this means that at least one other member needs to commit time to helping that new member get up to speed. There are a number of prerequisites that need to be met before that member can start being productive. The new member needs to be briefed on the project and given all necessary files and instructions to the tasks that they will need to complete. He or she needs to get their work environment set up, this could include upgrading machines, installing software and creating user accounts. All of these tasks will undoubtedly require contact with multiple team members thus taking time away from multiple team members in the hopes that this new member will eventually decrease the total load on the rest of the team.

The aforementioned prerequisites can also be increased if working remotely. Working on different time zones does not inherently mean progress will be slowed, but if physical components need to be shipped, an abroad teammate will have to shift focus to another task that is not dependent on a required shipment in order to still be productive. Unforeseen circumstances that slow progress will arise – in the form of natural disasters, internet availability, a downed server, etc…, having tasks lined up that are not all dependent on each other means that members can make progress on other tasks to ensure that no one will ever be blocked and unable to make any progress.

On the other hand, when a member leaves a project, the debriefing or offloading process is a lot quicker and easier to manage. The member that leaves needs to hand off all of their completed tasks and tasks currently in progress to another member, most likely a senior member . The offloading process is inherently easier and quicker but by ensuring that this process goes by flawlessly the senior member will be in a much better position if a new member or existing team member comes along to take over the workload of the member that is leaving.

To increase efficiency, team members should have frequent communication in which they decide which times work best for peer to peer collaboration and conference calls. Some team members may have greater aptitude at helping new teammates get started; a written guide paired with an experienced member can make this process even easier . Each time a new member is added to the team, the current members should learn from each experience and become more proficient at incorporating new recruits. When members leave the team or are on leave, proficiency in offloading tasks, will allow the team to work around a missing member will reducing the amount of blockers the remaining team members run into.

Based on my experience coming into the middle of Agile-based projects, here is a checklist to use that makes it faster and more efficient to get a team member contributing on a project:

• Get paperwork sorted asap
• Have a senior member supervise the new recruit
• Determine the strengths and weaknesses of the new member
• Delegate initial tasks based on recruit’s strength
• Collaborate with senior members to build on weak areas so more challenging tasks can be assigned
• Work to solve potential software or hardware issues before they become blockers
• Have tasks lined up in case a blocker prevents progress in one area
• Adjust workload appropriately

There will be some overhead incurred when a member joins or leaves a team mid project but these tips should reduce the amount of time a new member spends getting up to speed and being productive.

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