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name: technical-mentoring description: Mentor engineers on architecture skills with structured growth paths, deliberate practice, and design-review pairing. Use when developing senior/staff/principal engineers, building an internal architect bench, or coaching individuals through ADRs, trade-off analysis, and stakeholder communication.

Technical Mentoring for Architects

Architecture is a craft learned through reps, feedback, and reflection. Effective mentoring pairs explicit competency models with low-stakes practice (katas, shadowing) and high-stakes pairing (real ADRs, real reviews) so mentees internalize trade-off thinking, not just patterns.

Stack Baseline (2026)

| Concern | Recommended | | --- | --- | | Competency model | Staff Engineer Archetypes (Larson) + Hohpe Architect Elevator floors | | Growth framework | T-shaped depth + breadth across c4model.com layers | | Practice format | Architecture Kata (Ted Neward), ADR drills, brown-bag teardowns | | Feedback loop | Weekly 1:1 + paired ADR authoring + review shadowing | | Reference texts | Fundamentals of Software Architecture 2e, The Software Architect Elevator | | Tracking | Skill matrix in Markdown/Notion; quarterly calibration |

When to Use

• Promoting senior engineers toward staff/principal/architect roles.
• Onboarding a new architect to the org's domain and decision style.
• Closing gaps surfaced in architecture reviews (e.g., weak NFR analysis).
• Building a mentoring program inside a guild or chapter.

Prerequisites

• A published competency rubric (levels, behaviors, evidence).
• Access to live design work: ADRs, RFCs, review meetings.
• Mentor capacity (~2-3 hrs/week per mentee) and a 6-12 month horizon.
• Psychological safety: mistakes in drills must not affect performance reviews.

Instructions

flowchart LR
  A[Assess: rubric + 360] --> B[Plan: 90-day growth goals]
  B --> C[Practice: katas + ADR drills]
  C --> D[Pair: real reviews + RFCs]
  D --> E[Reflect: 1:1 + journal]
  E --> F[Recalibrate quarterly]
  F --> B

1. Assess with a 2026 rubric covering: systems thinking, NFR reasoning, communication (Elevator floors), influence, and tech breadth.
2. Plan three to five outcome-based goals per quarter (e.g., "Author 2 ADRs that survive review with <3 substantive comments").
3. Practice weekly: one architecture kata, one anti-pattern teardown, or one capacity estimation drill.
4. Pair on real artifacts: co-author an ADR, co-facilitate an ATAM-lite, shadow a vendor evaluation.
5. Reflect in 30-min 1:1s using the prompt: what decision, what trade-off, what you'd change.

# Mentee Growth Plan — Q2 2026

Mentee: <name>          Mentor: <name>
Target level: Staff Engineer (Architecture track)

## Goals
1. Lead 1 cross-team ADR end-to-end (draft -> review -> accepted).
2. Facilitate 2 architecture reviews using ATAM-lite checklist.
3. Publish 1 internal teardown of an anti-pattern from our codebase.

## Cadence
- Weekly 1:1 (Tue 30m), paired ADR session (Thu 60m)
- Monthly review with skip-level

## Evidence
Links to ADRs, review notes, recordings.

Common Pitfalls

| Pitfall | Why it hurts | Fix | | --- | --- | --- | | Pattern memorization over trade-offs | Produces Golden Hammer thinkers | Force "what would change your mind?" in every drill | | Mentor monologues | Mentee never practices the muscle | Mentor talks <30% of the time; ask, don't tell | | No artifacts | Growth is invisible at calibration | Require ADR/RFC outputs each cycle | | One-floor mentoring | Mentee can talk to peers but not execs | Rotate across Hohpe Elevator floors quarterly | | Skipping NFRs | Designs collapse under load/regulation | Every kata must score on 4+ quality attributes |

Output Format

• A growth plan (Markdown) with goals, cadence, and evidence links.
• A skill-matrix delta showing pre/post scores per competency.
• A portfolio folder of mentee-authored ADRs and review notes.
• A quarterly retro summarizing wins, gaps, and next-quarter focus.

Authoritative References

• Mark Richards & Neal Ford, Fundamentals of Software Architecture, 2e (O'Reilly, 2024).
• Gregor Hohpe, The Software Architect Elevator (O'Reilly).
• Will Larson, Staff Engineer — archetypes and growth paths.
• Ted Neward, Architecture Kata format — neward.net/architecturalkatas.
• ThoughtWorks Technology Radar (latest volume) — thoughtworks.com/radar.
• GitHub ADR community — github.com/joelparkerhenderson/architecture-decision-record.