Usually when a new joiner involves in a new project, he will spend much time on understanding the background of the project, the current status of the project and the requirements of the project etc. It is very easy for them to get lost in this stage. So to effectively help them involve in the project, we need have some people guiding them, giving them some useful instructions. What should we do to help them? Here are some steps I take.

1. Project background

In this phase, I will introduce to them some project background such as why we have this project, what is the project target and the current status of the project etc. We should demonstrate to the new joiners the current products we have so that they can have a direct impression on the project.

Although we are doing technical project, it's not so good for us just telling the details of the project instead of the project background.

2. Technology introduction

After going through the basics of the project. They will have a general idea of how to start the project and what ate the steps to be followed. Now we can introduce what technologies we will use and where these technologies are applied to in order for us to complete the requirements.

3. Project directory structure

Now we will open the project directory, introduce the organization structure of the project, explain function of each directory and some important files. To those colleagues who have similar experience before, it's relative easy for them to understand. To those who lack experience, it's a good chance for them to get a simple impression on the project structure, they can strengthen the impression in the future.

4. Function elaboration

Although many projects have similar structures and functions, there are still some distinctive differences among them. We should use some function modules to elaborate the flow of the project, from the presentation tier to manager tier, service tier and persistence tier and database. We should tell the new joiners what files we should modify and what are the relationships among these files when we want to add new function modules,.

5. Publish and test

After finishing the function modules, it's time for publishing and testing. Generally, one project may run in development, testing and production environment. After we have finished development and testings, we need to get our project run on production environment from the testing environment. Here, we should teach them how to pack publish and test the project.

6. Q&A

During these five phases above, there must be some question in new joiners mind. Now we can discuss the questions they have in detail. This may help them get a deep understanding of some problems in the project. If I cannot answer some questions, I may help them to get contact with people who are more experienced than me.

As a programmer, we not only need to know how to write code, but also need to give away our experience.

Original author : mydeman Reference : http://blog.csdn.net/mydeman/article/details/7533331