I lead a medium sized team of developers whose skill, age & time in the company vary for quite a bit. Some of the youngest in the team are considered profficient while some of the most seniors (age-wise) are outranked by a large part of the team. Plus, we have new people with less than 2 months in the project, while others have been for more than 3 years.
The problem I have is that we have a new project coming up everyone wants to get into, but everyone is unfamiliar with the skillset required for it and I have to divide my team in two for at least the first couple of months: some of them will stay in the current project, while others will get to work on the "cool" project.
In the long term I have already made it clear everyone will get their time on the new project by scheduling rotations, however everyone is eager to get in there first.
I have some concerns with this:
- If the experience on the skillset required for the new project is basically the same among all of the devs (quite low), based on what should I choose who moves and who doesn't? Experience is really not a factor i can rely on.
- How can I justify the desicions I make (or even, should I try to justify them?)
- What's the best way to keep morale up for those that don't get moved into the cool project (repeating "you'll get your chance soon" at some point will not be enough)
I have thought of doing small quizes so that I can pickup who's in the best shape or have at least the most knowledge needed for the "cool" project (which kinda gives me some justifications for my actions), however I also think I should just go with those I believe who can get the job right (basically a hunch which would led me to pick those I already have worked with, which practically gets the new guys out of the game).
Any advice would be highly appreciated.