An effective approach to scheduling workshops is to work within the context of the project
lifecycle.
Hold a workshop early in the project to create the overall project plan, the initial iteration plan, and other
plans within the associated discipline of the process or tool improvements (e.g. the
requirements management or change management plans). Define your iteration plans to introduce just enough process or
tool capabilities to meet the iteration's objectives. That way, the project team can learn the process by applying
it.
At the transition point between iterations, hold another workshop to review iteration results, plan the next iteration,
and identify issues and action plans. Include mid-project adjustments to the process of the project. You can adjust to
the pace of process adoption.
Hold follow-on mentoring workshops to help team members develop the skills they need to execute the iteration plan. For
example, during the Inception phase, project teams will need to understand the problem and create a vision for the
solution. A workshop led by an experienced facilitator/mentor is the most effective way to make progress on
this front.
During the iterations, mentors should work with the team to guide them in new process activities identified in the
iteration plans, which result in the creation of artifacts. Mentors can help team members learn how to play their roles
in the process and perform tasks in the tools with increasing proficiency as the project progresses. This
approach is called experiential learning (or learning by doing). If you think of software development as a kind of team
sport, then the mentor is a team coach who helps players achieve better results.
The mentoring sessions generally need to continue from Inception to Elaboration. For a project team of 10 people, 6-8
hours of mentoring/week may be sufficient.Plan for 12-15 days of mentoring over 12-15 weeks (from Inception to
Elaboration). The effort estimate will vary based on current state, future state, and time available to get to the
future state.
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