Understanding the tenets of agile software engineering

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.

Teaching Agile Methods to Software Engineering Professionals: 10 Years, 1000 Release Plans

“…Soundararajan, et al [15] developed an advanced graduate-level course (to non-software professionals) in Agile software engineering at Virginia Tech. Their course has similarities to our approach where they focus on Agile product development, host guest talks from industry experts, and encourage students to present and debate Agile case studies within the class.…”

On the Nature of Collaborations in Agile Software Engineering Course Projects

“…In recent years, soft professional skills have been recognized as being necessary in (software) engineering (Surakka, 2007;Soundararajan, Chigani, & Arthur, 2012;Sedelmaier & Landes, 2013), but often addressed inadequately in standard curriculums (Kovitz, 2003;Mohan et al, 2010). The team projects instill the habit among students of working alone, as well as working with others, over long periods of time.…”

Evaluation of Critical Thinking in Online Software Engineering Teaching: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…Software quality is closely related with the engineer's ability to judge and discriminate between solutions correctly, as well as adapting to the continuous changes in tools and techniques. This implies maintaining a high level of critical thinking in every decision during software production [4].…”