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MENTOR
Opening Opportunities Season 3
Mentor Guide
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THE PLOT
Opening Opportunities is a learning by doing program in which the main
characters are high school students in Computer Science driven by mentors
from Microsoft Romania.

It’s a mentor lead program, in which you and your colleagues from Microsoft
support teams of high schoolers into learning about tech and Computer Science
and create projects.

In the last two series we reached

2500 STUDENTS from 50 high schools

WITH 28 TECHNOLOGY EVENTS.
We had

OVER 500 STUDENTS

in 500 mentoring sessions.
THE SCRIPT
This guide is made to support you in the challenges you will
face in mentoring your characters, played by high school
students, to develop a tech project.

RESOURCES & POINTERS ON:

Mentoring program structure and activities

Program Calendar

Product development framework

Development resources

Access to support mentors that can help you hands on

with the challenges you may face

Contact details for the managers of the program

HOW TO PLAY A MENTOR

FLORIN GRAMA

Director Support Engineering Management

“Opening Opportunities is one of the most amazing corporate volunteering program in the country. Mentoring
youth is a deeply fulfilling, enriching and invaluable experience that passionate professionals could gain.
Guiding high school students to learn and grow, providing them with perspectives and insights into working in
IT projects generate huge impact that inspire them to make a difference in everything they do.

Sign up as a mentor on mentors.openingopportunities.ro

THE PART OF A MENTOR
Enable and act as a
sponsor and facilitator. Help resolve conflicts.

Provide emotional Grow your team

support for the students. You will share your experience and management skills.
support a team of high schoolers into
building a team and creating a product.
 PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 January 2017 February 2017

LAUNCH EVENTS DEVELOPMENT DEMO DAY

Live presentation in 10 Team forming Teams will premiere
cities where we will their project in front of
accommodate 3-4 Mentoring a live audience.
mentors to talk to the
students. Team challenges

Students will sign up

on our online platform
and select the mentor
SERIES SCHEDULE
Episode 1 - Late October
IDEA CHALLENGE
Teams have to submit their ideas
for review, to receive feedback
and suggestions for
improvement.
Episode 4 - Early December
MENTOR MEETUP II
Sync up meeting between the
mentors to exchange experience
and ask for support from each
other.
Episode 2 - Early November
MENTOR MEETUP I
Sync up meeting between the
mentors to exchange experience
and ask for support from each
other.
Episode 5 - Mid December/Early January
SALES CHALLENGE
The teams get users to use their
application and generate interest
for their product: visitors on the
website, number of users,
publishing in the app store.
They will submit a "report" to get
accepted in the final presentation.
Episode 3 - Late November
DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE
Teams have to submit their
applications for user testing and
getting feedback.
Publishing in the store.
Episode 6 - January/February
DEMO DAY
Final Presentation of the project
and results.
CREATING A SCRIPT
An extremely valuable experience for your actors will be working on a project as part of a
team, in a collaborative environment and creating something together! This is instrumental
for their future in the technology field, as it allows each of them to:

understand how software is developed, by whom, and what it means to work together
as part of a team
try their hand at various types of tasks - design, development, testing, presentation and
discovering what type of work suits them best
have fun playing with technology and bringing their ideas to life.

In order for these things to become reality, we strongly

encourage you, as a mentor, to have a process in place and
have your team follow it.

THE SCRIPT
FOLLOWING THE SCRIPT SYSTEM
DEVELOPMENT
LIFE
In this kit we present a variation of System Development Life Cycle
CYCLE
(SDLC), its stages, artifacts and team roles. The SDLC is a real life
process used, in various forms and names, by many professional
development teams to produce real software.
SDLC
More info

While you are free to tailor the SDLC to your team's skills and objectives, we strongly encourage
you to follow the stages in order, so that everyone knows what needs to be done next.

The temptation to start coding right away is very big, has led many professional
teams astray and has been the cause of many projects failing, or running over their
allotted time and budgets.

Following a process like SDLC will give your team the chance to:
Get to know what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are, and what they want to
accomplish in this program
Take their project idea and refine it into clear requirements
Limit the scope of the project to the most important 1-2 features, thus minimizing the
chance of working on too many things at once and nothing getting finished
Having a prototype / wireframe in place before starting development, so coding is done
with a clear goal in mind, and testing is easier afterwards
 STORY BOARD
PLANNING PHASE The initial phase of the program should allow both the mentor and the students to introduce themselves,
their background and their expectations from the program.

Phase Output: A list of team members with names and expectations from the program and 1-2 project ideas to develop
further.

ANALYSIS PHASE Your team will look at the project idea and identify all the product features that should be developed.

Phase Output: A requirements document detailing what features your application will be able to perform

DESIGN PHASE Your team should decide on two things: “What components should make up your application” and “How
should your application's user interface (UI) look like”

Phase Output: A UI design document showing what the application will look like.

DEVELOPMENT PHASE During the Development phase your team will work on implementing the features you have captured in
your requirements document, as they are designed in the UI design document.

Phase Output: An application with 2-3 working features.

TESTING PHASE Your team will test and fix any bugs in the application. You should have 1-2 people in the team play the role
of Tester.

Phase Output: A tested application and a bug list document (Excel or other format).

SALES AND PRESENTATION Your team will create a sales pitch.

Phase Output: A compelling speech and visual presentation meant to convince the audience.
ORGANIZE YOUR TEAM
The success of a project is determined by a good team and good management. Keep a look out for these roles for your
team. In small teams everyone will be involved in everything but a good mix will help you out.

THE DEVELOPER THE UI DESIGNER THE TESTER

Developers should have some
knowledge about how code works, or
have a passion and interest to tinker
and learn how to build. They will create
the functionalities of the app.
An eye for aesthetics, empathy for the user
and able to evaluate and integrate feedback.
The will create the user interface and will be
comfortable spending time in editing
programs.
Everyone from the team can occupy the
testing position, but they should be
able to find issues that move the
project forward, not hold it back.

THE SALESMAN THE PROJECT MANAGER

Able to understand the audience, the A project manager can keep things
project, structure a speech and going on track. He/she has an appetite
comfortable to speak in public. for structure and order and will be able
to bring people together.
TECHNICAL CREW
APPS & DEVELOPMENT
SORIN PEȘTE
Technical Evangelist
sorin.peste@microsoft.com
“If you have questions regarding the
feasibility of a project, directions
regarding what tools you can use or over
all technical drop me a line. I can help out
with suggestions, shortcuts and
resources that may make your tasks
easier.”
TEAM & PROJECT MANAGEMENT
RADU ȘTEFAN
Technical Evangelist
radu.stefan@microsoft.com
“One of the first challenges in Opening
Opportunities is assembling and
managing the student team as well as the
project. I was a mentor in the previous
editions, so I have an idea of what you
may face. Reach out to me if you need
any help with team and project
management.”
SALES & PRESENTATION
GEORGE DIȚĂ
Program Manager
george.dita@techsoup.ro
“More often than not, building a good
product requires getting it into the hands
of users by presenting it in front of an
audience and generating interest for it. I
am happy to answer any questions you
have regarding creating a presentation,
templates you can use or any other type
of feedback.”
THE PRODUCERS
If you have questions about the program or need any other type of support get
in touch with us:

GEORGE DIȚĂ ADELA BRADU

Program Manager In Residence, Techsoup Romania PR Lead, Microsoft Romania
george.dita@techsoup.ro adelab@microsoft.com
USEFUL RESOURCES
You will find the essential resources for the program here:
https://aka.ms/mymentorkit

More info about the SDLC here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_development_life_cycle

How to design an application: Design before you code.

PowerPoint Storyboard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJh4QUzMPyQ

Wireframe.cc - https://wireframe.cc/

Design mobile applications without coding: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/

Tutorials https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/tutorials/getting-started/

Samples https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/using-app-template/

Create programs with drag and drop: https://www.touchdevelop.com/

Getting Started https://www.touchdevelop.com/docs/getting-started

Tutorials and Samples https://www.touchdevelop.com/hourofcode2
BE A MENTOR
AUDITIONS TO BE A MENTOR IN
Opening OPENING OPPORTUNITIES 3.0
ARE OPEN UNTIL 15 OF SEPTEMBER
Opportunities
Season 3 TH

Join the team at mentors.openingopportunities.ro