Embedding agile practices into the curriculum: a manifesto for proactivity

Abstract

Agile Project Management is the dominant methodology for managing Software Development across the IT industry; and having been adopted by SME development teams and large development studios on multi-million-pound ventures alike, is one of the most sought-after soft skills in sector, particularly for Graduates. This talk reflects on transferring techniques practised from a highly successful 3-Year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (graded Outstanding by Innovate), which relied on the Agile process to keep the project alive and functioning efficiently over the COVID period, into the curriculum of our Computer Games Development and Software Engineering courses across all three years of our programme.

We will discuss the principles of the Agile Manifesto (Beck et al, 2001) and how to reframe them into an academic setting to enhance collaboration, help students to plan and reflect and progress their work, to foster a closer communication bond with the academic teams and students, to measure and analyse incremental changes and add value to modules focused on more specific, knowledge-based learning outcomes.

As we venture into a post-pandemic era of academic delivery, we will also look at how Agile fits into Remote Working Practices (Deshpande,2016) and the tools and technologies that can support this in practice both on and off-campus. Using practical examples of Agile configuration and collaboration tools and their application across three domain specific modules and their integration into a VLE, with the goals of: improving student performance in group courseworks; increasing their employability via soft skills outside the curriculum; increasing productivity across the semester; whilst simultaneously providing learning analytics and facilitating engaging formative feedback.

We will conclude by discussing why Agile is not just for software, and how some of its key features can be adopted by the wider academic communities and the roles that Academics can play

Embedding agile practices into the curriculum: a manifesto for proactivity Powerpoint. Only LJMU Staff and students have access to this resource.