Task: Develop Mentors
Identify and train experienced practitioners skilled in a specific area to be mentors working within the structure of a Center of Capability.
Disciplines: Software Capability Improvement
Purpose
Ensure that mentors have the proper training and experience to effectively transfer skills to project team members through hands-on project mentoring.
Relationships
RolesPrimary Performer: Additional Performers:
InputsMandatory:
    Optional:
    • None
    Outputs
      Main Description

      Staff the Center of Capability with highly skilled and experienced mentors, broadening the set of directly supported adoption programs. Provide needed training and experiences to help them understand and perform their role as a mentor.

      Steps
      Identify potential mentors

      Assess projects across the organization for delivery performance and target capabilities, identifying strong mentoring candidates for formalized skill development under the support, direction, and mentoring of senior CoC members.

      Establish practice forums, educational seminars, and targeted Human Resources initiatives to attract, develop, and promote CoC talent. 

      Get  buy-in and a confirmation of support from each candidate's manager. They must be made aware that the mentor will need dedicated time to perform mentoring activities.

      Initially, unless you have experts on staff, you will need to hire mentors from outside your organization. Over time, these external mentors will transfer knowledge to resident mentors in your organization, so that they can support the process and tools on their own. Typically these are senior, experienced practitioners who can lead.. When they are ready, these professionals will divide their time between applying the process and tools in real projects (60 to 70 percent) and mentoring other projects (30 to 40 percent).


      Provide any needed training or "mentor the mentor" experiences

      Provide training that helps the mentor to understand their role. Their mission is to enable project teams to be self-sufficient, not to simply execute and be watched.

      Mentors must learn how to assess progress of adoption and the progress of skill development.

      Evaluate performance
      Key Considerations

      Ensure that candidates have practical, hands-on knowledge of the needed skill area. Theoretical-only knowledge often results in the creation of too many artifacts or the performance of unnecessary activities on projects. This can cause the practitioners being mentored to become overwhelmed and confused. It can also result in a loss of credibility for the CoC.

      Ideally, mentors split their time between practicing and mentoring, ensuring that they have current knowledge in their respective disciplines.

      Successful mentors are not only experienced practitioners, they must have great people skills.

      Mentoring will have to be part of these practitioners'  formal job responsibilities so that they can give it the proper amount of attention. It should not be a spare time task that they feel obliged to push off in favor of more critical activities.