They probably already have some problems or pain points that git would solve for them. I would encourage you to quickly interview them and ask for their pain points.
I would expect these to be:
How do I share code with others?
How do I see what has changed?
How can I undo changes?
What are my next tasks?
For the presentation, I would show them one of your projects on Gitlab. Show them how it looks, and how it visualizes changes, histories, and issues.
Then I would let them maybe download a very simple example project, let them make changes, commit them, and try it out in a hands-on matter.
There is no better way to learn than seeing something visually and trying it out yourself.
Thank you for the input! I like the idea of getting their hands dirty, I think that will help them get a feel for how it works. Also focusing on their issues will be a great angle to the presentation.
Teresa listed the key point. The next step would be to question if they're real... how do you know those are real? Have you actually seen examples where those non-engineers wanted to, say, undo changes, or have different people work on the same thing, and so on?
Sometimes even providing examples may not be enough, because those people have probably figured out a way to work around those problems. The question then becomes: why is version control a better solution than whatever else they currently use to manage that issue?
They probably already have some problems or pain points that git would solve for them. I would encourage you to quickly interview them and ask for their pain points.
I would expect these to be:
For the presentation, I would show them one of your projects on Gitlab. Show them how it looks, and how it visualizes changes, histories, and issues.
Then I would let them maybe download a very simple example project, let them make changes, commit them, and try it out in a hands-on matter.
There is no better way to learn than seeing something visually and trying it out yourself.
Thank you for the input! I like the idea of getting their hands dirty, I think that will help them get a feel for how it works. Also focusing on their issues will be a great angle to the presentation.
Your post was in Jan, so how did it go?
Teresa listed the key point. The next step would be to question if they're real... how do you know those are real? Have you actually seen examples where those non-engineers wanted to, say, undo changes, or have different people work on the same thing, and so on?
Sometimes even providing examples may not be enough, because those people have probably figured out a way to work around those problems. The question then becomes: why is version control a better solution than whatever else they currently use to manage that issue?
Yeah, git was designed to solve the exact problems they are probably facing. I agree with this approach and the others mentioned in the thread.