Product-Related Learning Activities and Their Impact on the Effectiveness of the Onboarding Process in a Software Development Team

Abstract: The effectiveness of the onboarding is of im- portance to Information Technology (IT) companies since it determines how fast and how well the novice becomes integrated and independent in his or her new role as a developer. The onboarding process in most IT companies is often insufficient or non-existent. In this paper, action design science was conducted to investigate the current onboarding process in Ericsson to find areas for improvement. Two areas were found to be subject for enhancement – technical knowledge, and organizational knowledge. A product-related workshop was developed and integrated into a development team at Ericsson to examine it’s effect on the effectiveness of the onboarding process. The workshop consisted of Pecha Kucha presentations to enhance technical knowledge, and LEGO building workshop to enhance organizational knowledge. The workshop showed a modest positive improvement of the organizational knowledge, and no improvement of the technical knowledge.