Broken Comb
A team member who brings several relevant skills with uneven levels of proficiency across them, enabling flexible contribution across the teams work. Also called Paint Drip; related to T-shaped and I-shaped skill profiles.
Key Points
- Multi-skilled individual with different depths of expertise across several areas.
- Supports swarming, reduces handoffs and bottlenecks, and improves flow.
- Visual metaphor: comb teeth of varying lengths represent skill depth per domain.
- Compare with T-shaped (one deep, many shallow) and I-shaped (single deep) profiles.
Example
In a Scrum team, a developer can build APIs, write test automation, assist with UX reviews, and handle CI/CD tasks. They are strongest in backend work but can step into testing or DevOps when the team needs help, illustrating a broken-comb skill set.
PMP Example Question
In an agile team, which skill profile best describes a member who can contribute at different proficiency levels across coding, testing, UX, and DevOps, enabling effective swarming during sprints?
- T-shaped
- I-shaped
- Broken Comb (Paint Drip)
- Generalist with no depth
Correct Answer: C — Broken Comb (Paint Drip)
Explanation: A broken-comb professional has multiple skills with varying depths, allowing them to contribute across several domains. T-shaped has one deep area with broad shallow skills, and I-shaped focuses on a single deep specialty.
