Hackathon Style Projects
Why Attend a Hackathon Style Project?
One of the key aspects of measuring success of a training program is the ability of attendees to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom to real world scenarios. Attending a ‘Hackathon Style Project’ after a training program is a proven approach to achieve the following:
- Evaluate the success of the training
- Gain insight into the attendees level of knowledge retention
- Gauge the attendees ability to put theory into practice
‘Hackathon Style Projects’ are designed with these factors in mind. These events provide the participants with exciting and challenging experiences and a chance to show their knowledge. Although clients may choose to use these events to evaluate participants, at no time do they feel as if they are being tested. The ‘Hackathon Style Project’ is a fun activity where the attendees have the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and get additional experience that is relevant to their daily tasks.
What is a Hackathon Style Project?
The “Hackathon Style Project” is an event of fixed duration where people come together to complete a real world project related to their area of work in a super-condensed learning experience. During this event, developers are encouraged to to expeditiously arrive at a working project. The Project can be undertaken by a team of developers or by an individual.
The idea is to collaboratively code in an extreme manner starting from scratch and ending with a working prototype. Clients may choose to stage the event as a competition, where teams of programmers, developers, designers and project managers compete to design & build the best product, solution or software project. A mentor/instructor will guide the teams throughout. The project is related to the technology that participants have learnt through training.
Process:
- 1Based on the size of audience and subject of training, teams of 2-5 persons are formed before the event and the teams are announced at the start of event.
- 2The participants are given a problem that they have to solve. This is provided in the form of a document. The requirements of the project, end goal, duration and deliverables are shared and explained to the participants. There is a short session where participants can ask questions. . Participants will be provided with all the tools, instructions and set up required for the project.
- 3Each team collaborates amongst itself to plan, design and execute the project, including assigning responsibilities.
- 4Once the time expires, all the documentation and the proof of concept are submitted for review. During the review section each Team Lead presents their team’s solution.If appropriate, the team may also give a demonstration of the solution.
- 5If the event is set up in a competitive fashion or as a game, awards are then presented to the teams. Example awards include “Best Solution”, “Best Collaboration”, “Best Presentation” depending on the established goals of the session.
