Jun 12, 2008 / .net ~ mentoring
.NET Mentoring

I've just started my first private mentoring gig, and I must say it's great fun :) However, it would be good to get any tips from anyone who's done this before.

As a bit of background, the student is a guy in my local area who's company I've consulted for for the last few years.

The format of the mentoring we've decided on so far is this:

  • 1-2 hours a week of lecturing + hands-on use of .NET (meeting at my office or home).
  • Written notes each week published to online intranet (Google Sites)
  • Recorded audio of each session uploaded also
  • Solution files uploaded to intranet too
  • Homework assignments each week
  • Longer term coursework includes ASP.NET Web solution + more meaty problem (write your own database server)

I'm covering the following subjects:

  • Understanding the problem (conceptual modelling, UML, Use Cases)
  • Unit Testing and Test Driven Development
  • Good Principles of Sofware Development (cohesion, coupling, DRY, repeatability, OCP)
  • Using Object Oriention to structure maintainable software
  • Data Access techniques (pros and cons or ORM/DataSets etc)
  • Data modelling and process modelling
  • Leveraging C# (LINQ, delegates, Lambda, Generics)
  • Introducing Design Patterns

We're on week 3 now, and we both feel it's going well. Would be cool to hear about anyone else who's doing this kind of thing.


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