Understanding the Tenets of Agile Software Engineering: Lecturing, Exploration and Critical Thinking

TL;DR

This paper discusses a graduate course on Agile Software Engineering aimed at enhancing understanding and critical thinking about agile principles, with insights from instructors, TAs, and students to improve education in this field.

Contribution

It presents a novel educational approach combining lectures, industry expert talks, and research discussions to teach Agile principles at the graduate level.

Findings

Enhanced student engagement with Agile concepts

Positive feedback on critical thinking exercises

Improved understanding of Agile practices

Abstract

The use of agile principles and practices in software development is becoming a powerful force in today's workplace. In our quest to develop better products, therefore, it is imperative that we strive to learn and understand the application of Agile methods, principles and techniques to the software development enterprise. Unfortunately, in many educational institutions courses and projects that emphasize Agile Software Development are minimal. At best, students have only limited exposure to the agile philosophy, principles and practices at the graduate and undergraduate levels of education. In an effort to address this concern, we offered a graduate-level course entitled "Agile Software Engineering" in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech in Fall 2009. The primary objectives of the class were to introduce the values, principles and practices underlying the agile philosophy, and to do so in an atmosphere that encourages debate and critical thinking. The course was designed around three central components: (1) teaching the essentials of how one develops a product within an Agile framework, (2) having invited presentation by notable industry experts, and (3) having students present and discuss current research topics and issues. This paper describes our experiences during the offering of that course, and in particular, the unique perspectives of the class instructor, the teaching assistant and a student who was enrolled in the class.