Mentoring trajectories in an evolving agile workplace
Shreya Kumar, Charles Wallace, Michael F. D. Young · 2016
Agile approaches to software development offer flexibility and autonomy to developers, while demanding discipline and attentiveness. At its best, agile constitutes an idealized vision of Wenger's Community of Practice: one where the essence of the software practice is freely negotiated by participants following self-determined trajectories of identity within the community. While agile frameworks prescribe ways of doing, in reality these codified practices must adapt to a real workplace. Nowhere is this more plainly seen than in the onboarding stage of new employees: this is the point where newcomers establish an identity and establish means of participating within the development community.