A real-life, walking, talking example

In the fall of 1998, I sat in a programmer's chair in St. Charles, Il at the education facility of Andersen Consulting as a newly-hired analyst. The setup at St. Charles (which is what we called the facility) was like the article described: comparable to a college campus (in fact, I think it actually was a campus of a jr college before Andersen purchased it). We stayed in dorm rooms for three weeks while we attended classes and, specifically, participated in the goal-based scenario training. As I remember it (it was 10 years ago!), a classroom of maybe 18 people in teams of three sat in front of computers and attempted to solve the problem that was given to us. In the process of solving the problem, we learned about the business processes that AC used, the technologies used to achieve results, and how the roles of each individual team member were defined and played out. We were evaluated by our coaches throughout the process and the entire scenario was built on the simulation of what a real life project would be like. (This training was for analysts, the training we read about in GBS_Various was for consultants, which are with the firm for 24 months. The exact scenarios are not the same, but the model for learning is close.)

I did enjoy participating in the GBS. It provided hands-on experience and exposed me to a working environment that I had not known before. I have always thought that learning by doing was the best way to learn - for me - so I appreciated the approach.