Separate Project and Maintenance Teams. Does It Make Sense?

Suppose you have to add a new major feature to an app. Which of the 2 scenarios is easier?

• add the feature to a relatively small app, still under construction, not yet in production
• add the feature to an app that has grown over time, whose overall quality is questionable, which is already running in production serving several clients

Well, there is no doubt. The second is a much more challenging task.

But then why do we usually find a more senior experienced team in the first and more junior teams buried in the second?

Many years ago

When I entered the team that was developing the new Payment system for a major European Bank, the first position I was given was in the Application Maintenance (AM) team responsible for the legacy parts. The reasons were simple and shared: I was new to the place, new projects were running fast using leading edge technologies for which there was not much experience. AM would have been the right place for me to grow without too much pressure. As soon as I had gathered enough knowledge and experience I would have moved to the Project team, the team developing new features with new technologies, the team of the cool people. After one year or so this actually happened, but I will…