Won’t team members over inflate their T-Skills?
No.
In our experience most people underplay their level of skills more often than they will over inflate them.
The team dynamic has the positive effect of self regulation, it helps keep each team member honest about their level of skills. If a team member does over inflate their level of skills, another team member will typically call it out.
We often see the opposite, where the team members will underplay their level of skill, as they compare themselves to another team member who has more experience in that set of skills. In this scenario the other team members again tend to call it out and help the person understand how skilled they really are.
There needs to be a safe cultural environment for this self regulation to happen. A safe cultural environment is critical for all AgileData team behaviour and patterns, not just the T-Skills mapping.
Can I have part time members in the pod/squad/team?
Yes.
Ideally you want the team members dedicated to the pod/squad/team full time. We know that having part time team members brings extra challenges to the team.
The team will have to optimise the work being done around the availability of the part time team member, especially if the team does not have coverage for the skills or skill depth the part time member provides.
The team will also have to schedule any team ceremonies they utilise to ensure they happen when the part time team member is available.
Lastly there will often be situations where the part time team members other work will become a priority and their availability will be less than normal for a period of time. The team will have to re-optimise their work to deal with this change. Often the team is given little notice of this change of availability, its is a last minute change, and this will impact their ability to deliver what they said they would deliver, when they said they would deliver it as they have planned to have that person and those skills available.
Can I have part time people in the supporting roles?
Yes.
There is less impact in the supporting roles being part time, compared to a pod/squad/team member.
The main impact is that the team may not get the immediate direction they need when they need a decision to be made. This will result in either the team slowing down to wait for that direction, or making a trade off decision themselves. There is a risk that any decision they make may be overridden by the supporting role after the fact and this will result in rework.
If a person in a supporting role is only available part time, you should aim for consistency on when that person is available so the team can plan around that availability. For example a Product Owner who is only available 50% of their time, try and make sure that they are always available in the first half of each day, so the team can plan when to get feedback from them.