MozCampAsia2012/Schedule/desktopandmobile/Mentoring new developers, and common stumbling blocks of new contributors

From MozillaWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Title of Session (should also be the title of your Wiki page): Mentoring new developers, and common stumbling blocks of new contributors

Facilitator(s): Blair McBride (Unfocused)

Are you paid or volunteer staff?: Paid

Area of Contribution (Team Name): Firefox (fx-team)

How are you currently involved with the community?: I'm owner of the Add-ons Manager, and peer for Firefox and Toolkit - which means I get to do a lot of code reviews. I also mentor new contributors in bugs ranging from small fixes to large group projects, as well as helping out in IRC channels like #extdev and #introduction.

Location of Work (where do you reside?): New Zealand (work from home)

Talk Length (please choose between 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes): 60min

Summary: Getting more new developers contributing is dependent on better understanding how we can help and guide new contributors, remove frustrations, and providing the relevant information for new contributors to better help themselves. I'll be talking about my experiences and lessons learned in reviewing code and mentoring new contributors; and the type of stumbling blocks that are common to many new contributors. This will cover topics such as: finding the right bugs, finding the right information, communication, good-enough code, useful reviews, etc. There will be Q&A/discussion throughout the session - as there a lot of different experiences to be talked about.

How your session furthers the MozCamp Goals: By making the new code contributor experience smoother and improving mentorship, we can grow new developer contributions for Firefox and other projects - and not have them leave due to frustration or a feeling of lack of achievement.

Expected Outcome or Deliverable: Those just starting to contribute patches will hopefully be able to avoid some of the common issues, and come out with a higher level of confidence in fixing their first bugs. Experienced contributors should come out with a greater understanding of how to better help and teach new contributors, and better identify areas where new contributors can start. Finally, the discussion should generate a short list of action items for better improving mentoring and guiding new contributors.

Desired Audience Type or Skill-set: Mostly developer focused - a range of people wanting to or just starting to contributor patches, to experienced developers that mentor new code contributors (or want to become more involved with new contributors).

Equipment Needs (Video projector already included): None


To Be Completed by the Audience-

(If you would like) Submit a Question for the Speaker(s) or indicate what information you hope to gain by attending this talk here:

Place your name here if you would like to attend this talk: