Work-Context Learning (Mentoring)
Training is project independent, but mentoring or work-context training is learning with a specific project. Without a real project, mentoring is simply training. The results of the mentoring are completed project deliverables (e.g. Use Case Models) as well as a staff that can function independent of the mentor.
Given the 5 stages of learning: Basic knowledge, Understanding, Applying, Judgment, Synthesis: Training addresses only the first two items, where as mentoring addresses the remaining stages of learning and empowers your staff to apply and synthesize that knowledge. Unlike a consultant that continues beyond the project’s completion, with mentoring, your employees are productive without the consultants due to their newly learned skill.
A good analogy would be a doctor. A doctor goes to 4 years of medical school with a 3-year internship where they must apply their basic knowledge learned before they practice medicine on their own. Mentoring in software development is much like an internship in practicing medicine. Employees are like interns, and the mentor is the experienced doctor working with the interns.
STEPS
- Determine the project to be used for mentoring.
- Develop a well-defined plan before the mentoring starts. It should include:
- Scope of mentoring
- Objectives of mentoring
- Deliverables of mentoring
- Define time for mentoring workshops in the overall project plan
- Define who is the sponsor. Who is paying for mentor?
- Who are the people mentored? Business Analyst, Developer or Project Manager
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