Firefighters to handle interruptions. Does it really work?

In the world of agile software development, interruption handling is one key segment where teams are struggling to discover a solution. From the list of solutions available, assigning firefighters is a common method that most of the teams are exercising on. Does it really work?

Who are firefighters?

Firefighters are some of team members who are assigned to handle issues, support to customers during a sprint in order not to affect to the ongoing sprint. Firefighter role rotates sprint by sprint so that all the team members get a chance to work on the sprint work too.

Challenge

1. Domain and technical knowledge

To be assigned as a firefighter, all the team members should have proper domain knowledge as well as technical knowledge. If firefighters are lagging the technical knowledge to work on a specific task, then they might need to get the help from the experts in that area. That means another team member has to spend time on the same which again affect to the ongoing sprint

2. Small teams

When the team has 3–4 developers and due to the workload if you happened to assign a majority to handle interruptions as firefighters, then it will be a big issue to continue the ongoing sprint. Therefore, for a small team it is recommended to assign only one person as a firefighter or not to assign such hence go for another solution like lean which encourage quick delivery.