Presentation slides for the HICSS'22 paper "Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a Remote Agile Software Engineering Project Course During COVID-19" Matthies, C., Teusner, R., & Perscheid, M. (2022). "Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a Remote Agile Software Engineering Project Course During COVID-19". In Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2022.113

1. Hasso Plattner Institute
University of Potsdam, Germany
christoph.matthies@hpi.de
@chrisma0
Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a
Remote Agile Software Engineering
Project Course During COVID-19
Christoph Matthies, Ralf Teusner, Michael Perscheid
virtual conference, January ’22
Image: Video Call by Vectors Point from NounProject.com

2. 2
Case Study Context
An undergraduate Agile software engineering course
“methods, concepts, and technologies that
help successfully deliver large software
products developed by multiple teams. [1]
”
[1]ihttps://hpi.de/plattner/teaching/archive/winter-term-2020-21/
softwaretechnik-ii-agile-software-development-in-large-teams.html
Image: Mortar Board by Catia Marsh Mallow from NounProject.com

3. Case Study Context
3
Course contents, context and study motivation
■ Practical project course featuring multiple student teams
■ Teams collaborate to build a common product
■ Scrum and Kanban are taught and used in practice
■ Close to real-world software development experiences:
large-scale collaboration, software architecture,
work organization, customer management
COVID pandemic:
switch from in-person teamwork to completely virtual setup
Image: Virus by Nawicon from NounProject.com

4. Main Research Question
4
The aim of this study
Research Question:
What challenges and opportunities
occurred in a multi-team Agile university project course
taught (emergency) remotely for the first time?
Image: Question by KonKapp from NounProject.com

5. Case Study Context
5
■ Experienced student tutors participate in all regular student
team meetings, act as knowledgeable mentors
■ Teaching team member takes on role of project customer
supplying requirements and feature wishes
■ Teaching team members available for
questions and comments
Teaching team support
Image: High Five by Adrien Coquet from NounProject.com

6. Data Collection
6
■ Two main methods of data collection:
□ Semi-structured notes of regular teaching team meetings
□ Anonymous, free-text end-of-term course evaluations
■ Items included that received at least two separate mentions
■ Iteratively grouped into topic cluster
Categorized items as challenges or opportunities
Perceptions of educators and students
Image: Data Collection by Becris from NounProject.com

7. Remote Collab. Challenges
7
■ Encountered challenges of emergency remote teaching
experience mirror previous reports
□ Especially regarding remote lectures [2]
However, we also noticed positives of remote Agile software
engineering education and teamwork that were not anticipated
Perceived challenges and opportunities
[2] Watermeyer, R., Crick, T., Knight, C. et al. COVID-19 and digital disruption in UK universities: afflictions and
affordances of emergency online migration. High Educ 81, 623–641 (2021).
Image: Challenge by LUTFI GANI AL ACHMAD from NounProject.com

8. Positives of Remote Collab.
8
■ Results: 13 topic clusters on positives of remote collaboration in
undergraduate SE project course
■ Surprised by aspects of the remote collaboration approach
that were deemed explicitly beneficial
■ Other educators also thought “transforming to online teaching
would be much harder than what they experienced” [3]
Results of comment analysis regarding opportunities
[3] Hjelsvold, R., Nykvist, S., Lorås, M., Bahmani, A., Krokan, A. Educators’ Experiences Online:
How COVID-19 Encouraged Pedagogical Change in CS Education. No. 4 UDIT Norsk konferanse
for utdanning og didaktikk i IT-fagene. (2020)
Image: Positive by Ömer Demirsoy from NounProject.com

9. Positives of Remote Collab.
9
Stable communication structures
■ Teams' communication & organizational structures did not
drastically change from in-person to remote setup
■ Inter-team communication was overwhelmingly digital
in previous in-person projects
■ Instant messaging is heavily present in modern life, sending
a chat message even in co-located teams is not unusual
Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
Image: Smartphone by IconMark from NounProject.com

10. Positives of Remote Collab.
10
Deeper connection to teaching team
■ Tutors spontaneously asked to join team video calls when
questions or issues arose
■ Not possible in in-person meetings, which might not even take
place in a shared space that can be easily reached
■ Course tutors reported improved connections to the teams
through instant messaging in the remote setup
Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
Image: Video Call by Vectors Point from NounProject.com

11. Positives of Remote Collab.
11
Easier organization of team building activities
■ Organizing team-building activities, finding common time &
place, reported as more straightforward in remote teams
■ Efficient virtual communication setup already present, virtual
collaborative team activities were quick to set up
■ Mentioned examples included Scribble.io,
Among Us, or virtual Settlers of Catan
Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
Image: Game by Lukasz M. Pogoda from NounProject.com

12. Positives of Remote Collab.
12
Documentation by default
■ Digital collaboration tools lead to interactions and team decisions
being documented by default
■ Especially reported for Retrospective meetings
□ Team issues & solutions persisted in digital spaces
□ Readily available in next meeting
■ In in-person course iterations, progress on improvement
actions often not tracked because they were forgotten
Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
Image: Whiteboard by Amiryshakiel from NounProject.com

13. Positives of Remote Collab.
13
Increased Pair Programming
■ Remote course featured more Pair Programming
■ Extensive use of code collaboration tools, e.g. LiveShare
■ Virtual setup does not require physical co-location
in front of a shared computer
■ Both “driver” and “navigator” can use their customized
computing setups, which is more comfortable
Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
[4] VisualStudio Code Liveshare https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/services/live-share/
Image: Pair Programming by Creative Stall from NounProject.com

14. ■ Study of student and educator perceptions of emergency remote
agile software engineering project course
■ Present 10 challenges of remote collaboration in student teams and
offer countermeasures based on our teaching experience
■ Identify 13 positives of remote collaboration and action items
Ongoing discussion on how to maintain
positives in future courses
Conclusions
14
Summarized study results and information on full paper
Image: Conclusion by Eko Purnomo from NounProject.com

15. Summary
15
christoph.matthies@hpi.de @chrisma0
HPI, University of Potsdam, Germany