This training for the DBA who is new to IDMS evolved from a need to pass IDMS skills on to DBA’s who were a long way from any available formal training either by CA or by 3rd party vendors. The question became one of how to do the training within the following constraints:
- The trainee usually has day-to-day work which he/she must be able to keep with so that
- Training sessions must be flexible so that the trainee can do what needs to be done when the time is available, and
- Costs are kept to a minimum
What we developed was the following “course” which is “mentor led” training with alternating reading assignments for the trainee, followed by question and answer sessions and discussion, followed by "hands on" assignments.
The advantage of the reading assignments means that the mentor only needs to spend time on the concepts and technology specific issues which the trainee is not able to grasp from the manual or from existing knowledge – so in effect the training builds on existing knowledge the trainee may have from experiences as an IDMS developer or as a DBA with other products.
Another major advantage of the reading is that the DBA becomes familiar with the extensive CA-IDMS documentation set, one of the most complete documentation sets for any product in the CA stable of products. On completion of the training the new DBA will know where to find answers to questions, and where to look for confirmation of facts or look up specific details required for the task at hand.
The contents of this “mentor led” training take the participants (contractor, manager, and trainee) from the training proposal, through the course content, right through to the “project” conclusion report to the site manager who approved the training.
This training has been conducted successfully on a number of occasions on a one-to-one and one-to-two basis. It has been very cost effective as the client organisation just pays for the mentor's "on site" time, which is considerably less than paying for a trainer for a week. As a rule of thumb the trainee and the mentor should plan on completing the training in 2 to 4 weeks. If it takes any longer than that it is likely because of a lack of commitment by either the trainee or the client organisation - either way - once you start to get past the 3rd week warning signs should be popping up!
Good luck and happy DBA'ing!
Enjoy – cheers – Gary
Comments and feedback are - as always - welcomed!