PhD seminar 15.04.04

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PhD seminar 15.04.04

• A case study of the mentoring approach in a SPIKE
  company
• By Finn Olav Bjørnson

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Contents

• Background
• Study
• Results
• Workshop
• Future plans
• Discussion

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Background

• SPIKE project
• Research project funded by NFR 2003-2005
• Participants
• Abelia Innovasjon
• SINTEF, NTNU, UiO / Simula Research Laboratory
• 10-12 partners in Norwegian ICT industry
• 3 industrial partners in Trondheim

• Focus in Trondheim companies
• Improved internal knowledge management
• RUP adaptation for use as a process guide
• Develop method framework and implement in EPG

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The study so far

• The mentoring approach to knowledge sharing in a
  small IT company.
• Litterature study
• ACM, IEEE, EBSCO
• Interviews
• 6 interviews
• Interview guide
• Recorded and transcribed
• Analyzed
• Workshop with results

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Results from initial interviews

• Identified positive feelings about mentoring
• Identified challenges in mentoring
• Current learning from mentoring seems to be
  single looped
• Several approaches to mentoring detected,
  informal and formal
• Mentor seems to be a mixture of different roles

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Workshop results

• Identified elements that should be part of the
  mentoring approach.
• Defined separation between mentoring, QA and
  sponsor (fadderordning)
• Identified a 3-way split of the mentoring
  approach
• Identifed how mentoring could be arranged to
  promote better learning

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Workshop results (cont.)
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Workshop results (cont.)
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Future work

• Finish litterature study
• Final workshop to agree on new approach to
  mentoring
• Business as usual
• Observe new mentoring approach, does it promote
  better internal knowledge transfer?

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Discussion

• Is this computer science?
• How does this theme fit in our definition of
  Software Engineering?
• Ideas for future work?