Leveraging Agile Software Methodologies Within Software Development to Introduce a Novel Educational Software Methodology
Abstract
Agile Software Development has been growing increasingly popular in the software engineering industry as a way to produce working software in a quick and people-centered manner. Agile methodologies require practitioners to have strong technical and non-technical skills, such as teamwork, project management, and communication skills. Students graduating from the software engineering discipline have been found to be lacking in these areas, leading to many difficulties faced by recent graduates as they begin their professional careers. Given that Agile Software Development is the most popular software development lifecycle currently used by practitioners in industry, it is important to expose students to Agile practices prior to graduating from university. In order to understand students’ perspectives pertaining to software engineering education, surveys were presented to computer science students aimed at assessing and understanding their experiences, familiarity, and motivation within their computer science education, particularly as it related to their knowledge of software development lifecycles. The data was used in the creation of a novel educational software methodology. This methodology leverages the Agile principles, the project-based learning principles, and engineering educational principles in order to create a synergistic learning environment with a goal of enhancing student learning. The aim of this new methodology is to simulate a real-world problem utilizing an Agile-Waterfall hybrid approach in order to guide the students in their transition towards an Agile mindset. Unlike other educational methodologies and models that have been implemented, this new model combines the strengths of Waterfall and Agile to ensure a structured approach towards learning Agile methodologies, establishing mutual support between the students and the professor.
Subject Area
Computer science|Engineering|Science education|Computer Engineering
Recommended Citation
Molina, Montserrat Guadalupe, "Leveraging Agile Software Methodologies Within Software Development to Introduce a Novel Educational Software Methodology" (2023). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI30819627.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI30819627