Transitioning to Distributed Development in Students' Global Software Development Projects: The Role of Agile Methodologies and End-to-End Tooling

Abstract

From 2005 to 2008, we explored different models of collaboration in student software development projects. In the past, project roles were distributed across students in the US, Cambodia, India and Thailand. What was common to our previous models was the co-location of developers, the client and quality assurance roles being the ones that were commonly distributed. A loose waterfall software development process was always used and activities were supported by a mashup of technologies. In 2009, we distributed the developers across the US, India and Senegal to form a truly distributed developer role. We also switched to the use of Agile methodologies with Scrum and to an end-toend tooling solution, specifically the IBM Rational Team Concert environment. This paper describes the new model and reports on the evolution of our process and tooling infrastructure. In particular, it investigates how well Agile and Scrum practices supported our model and how important tooling is to their implementation. Initial guidelines for other educators are provided.

Learning Global Agile Software Engineering Using Same-Site and Cross-Site Teams

“…In the previous instance of our course, we found that the Scrum method, along with supporting collaboration practices and tools, supports the learning of important GSE competencies, such as distributed communication and teamwork, building and maintaining trust, using appropriate collaboration tools, and inter-cultural collaboration [7]. Scharff et al [4]- [6] found that Scrum increased the transparency of both the process and the developed software product in their GSE course using Scum practices over three years after transitioning from teaching the course using the waterfall methodology.…”

“…In line with this shift in industry trends, examples of software engineering curricula teaching GSE using agile methods have emerged [4]- [7]. The reported courses are practical, project-driven, utilize agile development methods like Scrum [8] and are arranged in collaboration between two or more universities, enabling students to learn GSE in realistic settings [9].…”

Mitigating Coordination Costs in Global Software Development Using Scrum

“…These challenges were cultural differences, timezone differences, technical difficulties and the differences in semesters and courses between two universities as reported in [4]. In [5], there is a case study of a team that developed a Target First Grade project that is a mobile application for children learning mathematics, reading geography and writing. This project took nine weeks to develop.…”

“…Transitioning to Distributed Development in Students' Global Software Development Projects [5] The results of this paper are limited as it depends on two projects only and it selected interview method for collecting data. There were challenges with coordination in both projects when applied SoS meetings.…”

“…This situation happens in Daily Scrum meetings that take fifteen minutes. Sprint Review meeting is held at the end of each sprint to discuss the accomplished tasks during the Sprint [2][4] [5].…”