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Difference between revisions of "Summer of Code/Application/2007"
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Summer of Code/Application/2007 (view source)
Revision as of 17:42, 5 March 2007
, 17:42, 5 March 2007Entering: →When things go wrong
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== When things go wrong == | == When things go wrong == | ||
This section presents the overall strategy used to prevent students and mentors from dropping out of their tasks. | |||
Communication breakdown | |||
=== Students === | |||
There are two main reasons for a student to stop participating in the assigned task: | |||
Loss of interest, and unforeseen difficulties. | |||
There are various causes for the former case, such as: | |||
* The student cannot cope with the technical requirements of the task, | |||
* Communication with the mentor does not fare well, or | |||
* The student is daunted by the current codebase. | |||
It is up to the mentors to identify this case and act. | |||
Through the screening process the mentors will assess the technical skills of the candidate. | |||
Then, if communication breakdown occurs it rarely happens abruptly. | |||
Usually, a student losing interest will keep an ever lowering profile. | |||
The mentors will regularly query for status (at least once a week). | |||
When the student is in trouble, the mentors will go to lengths to support the student actively. | |||
The tasks will be planned ahead in conjunction the mentor, with informal interim reports and milestones as applicable. | |||
In the case of disappearing students due to unforeseen difficulties unrelated to the task at hand, there is not much that can be done effectively. | |||
Hopefully, this case will be identified through the frequent student-mentor communication. | |||
=== Mentors === | |||
Of the two above mentioned cases, only the case of unpredictable circumstances, unrelated to the project, applies to the mentors. | |||
When a mentor anticipates a period of unavailability, the student will be referred to another mentor and the administrator will be notified. | |||
The students can always turn to the very active irc channel for both general and specific inquiries. | |||
Mentors will internally update their status, so no students get left alone if a mentor drops out. | |||
== Data == | == Data == | ||