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Development Team Rotations | On-Call & Support Duty

Team rotations (on-call, support, triage) require systematic scheduling. GitScrum documents rotation schedules, adjusts capacity, and ensures fair distribution of duty.

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How to manage development team rotations?

Manage rotations by documenting schedules in NoteVault, adjusting sprint capacity for on-rotation developers, tracking rotation tasks on the board, ensuring fair distribution, and planning handoffs. Common rotations include: on-call/incident response, support duty, code review lead, and release captain.

Rotation labels

LabelPurpose
rotation:oncallOn-call duty
rotation:supportSupport duty
rotation:reviewReview lead
rotation:releaseRelease captain
rotation:triageBug triage
handoffRotation handoff

Rotation types and capacity impact

RotationDurationCapacity Impact
On-call1 week50%
Support duty1 week50%
Triage lead1 sprint20%
Review lead1 week20%
Release captain1 release30%

NoteVault rotation schedule

# Team Rotation Schedule

## On-Call Rotation (24/7)
| Week | Primary | Secondary |
|------|---------|-----------|
| Jan 27 | Dev A | Dev B |
| Feb 3 | Dev B | Dev C |
| Feb 10 | Dev C | Dev D |
| Feb 17 | Dev D | Dev E |
| Feb 24 | Dev E | Dev A |

## Support Duty (Business Hours)
| Week | Support Dev |
|------|-------------|
| Jan 27 | Dev C |
| Feb 3 | Dev D |
| Feb 10 | Dev E |
| Feb 17 | Dev A |
| Feb 24 | Dev B |

## Bug Triage
| Sprint | Triage Lead |
|--------|-------------|
| Sprint 5 | Dev A |
| Sprint 6 | Dev B |
| Sprint 7 | Dev C |

## Handoff Checklist
- [ ] Review open incidents
- [ ] Update runbook if needed
- [ ] Brief incoming person
- [ ] Transfer on-call device/access
- [ ] Update rotation tracker

Rotation handoff template

## Rotation Handoff: On-Call

From: @dev-a
To: @dev-b
Period: 2025-01-27 to 2025-02-03

### Open Items
- [ ] Monitoring alert #123 - intermittent, watching
- [ ] Deploy scheduled for Tuesday

### Recent Incidents
- 2025-01-25: Database connection pool - resolved
- 2025-01-26: API latency spike - resolved

### Runbook Updates
- Added new restart procedure for service X

### Notes
- Quiet week expected
- Release on Tuesday may need monitoring

Rotation workflow:

  • Schedule rotations - Fair distribution in NoteVault
  • Adjust capacity - Reduce sprint commitment
  • Assign rotation tasks - Add to board
  • Perform handoff - Brief incoming person
  • Track duty work - Log in task comments
  • Handle incidents - As they arise
  • Document learnings - Update runbooks
  • Complete handoff - Brief next person
  • Fair rotation distribution

    ## Rotation Balance - Q1 2025
    
    | Developer | On-Call Weeks | Support Weeks | Triage Sprints |
    |-----------|---------------|---------------|----------------|
    | Dev A | 3 | 2 | 1 |
    | Dev B | 3 | 2 | 1 |
    | Dev C | 2 | 3 | 1 |
    | Dev D | 2 | 2 | 2 |
    | Dev E | 3 | 2 | 1 |
    
    Notes:
    - Dev C took extra support to balance less on-call
    - Dev D new to team, doing more triage for learning
    

    Sprint planning with rotations

    ## Sprint 5 Capacity
    
    | Developer | Base | Rotation | Net Capacity |
    |-----------|------|----------|--------------|
    | Dev A | 10 pts | On-call (-50%) | 5 pts |
    | Dev B | 10 pts | None | 10 pts |
    | Dev C | 8 pts | Support (-50%) | 4 pts |
    | Dev D | 8 pts | Triage (-20%) | 6 pts |
    | Dev E | 10 pts | None | 10 pts |
    | **Total** | 46 pts | | **35 pts** |
    

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