Digital Coach Technology (DCT) is software designed to simulate coaching by a personal trainer. Being software-based, it is designed to be used by more than one learner at a time, compared to standard human coaching methods, which are limited by the available time of the coach.
DCT was originally created to address two challenges; one with positive deviance and the other with knowledge management technologies. In both cases knowledge could be gathered, but it was difficult to get people to use the knowledge through standard learning methods. Work with private sector managers led to identifying certain key traits present in personal mentoring relationships. These traits are:
DCT was first developed by William Seidman and Michael McCauley in 1998. It began as an effort to coach large numbers of design engineers in a semiconductor manufacturer to use positive deviant-derived microprocessor design processes. It was later used in by private and public sector customers, including retail chains, construction companies and U.S. federal and state agencies.