The document discusses using agile project management methods like Kanban for course management and delivery. It describes Kanban, which uses cards on a board to visualize workflow from a "to do" column to a "done" column. The document suggests using a Kanban board to manage coursework, with each week or module as a timebox. It also presents Scrum as another potential agile method and poses questions about implementing these approaches in the classroom.

1. USING AGILE METHODS FOR COURSE MANAGEMENT AND
DELIVERY
APPAM Spring 2014 Conference
12 April 2014 – e12d2a3f7785
James P. Howard, II
School of Public and International Affairs

2. MOTIVATION

3. I Teach Here
Public Financial Management
Graduate-level (MPA)
Monday nights
3

4. I Also Teach Here
Introduction to Statistics
Undergraduate-level
Online
4

5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND AGILE

6. Why Project Management
◦ Complex and different class types
◦ Very different demands and needs
◦ Manage inputs and outputs
◦ Projects are defined by
◦ Start time
◦ End time
◦ Defined work product
6

7. About Agile
◦ Iterative and incremental
◦ Complete small portions in each delivery cycle
◦ Agile is an ideology for delivering projects, not a framework
◦ Used heavily in software development and IT environments
7

8. Some Agile Methodologies
◦ Timeboxing – a fixed amount of time to work in
◦ Refactoring – changing internals without changing externals
◦ Backlogs – an ordered list of requirements
8

9. KANBAN

10. What is Kanban?
◦ Developed by Toyota to manage just-in-time production
◦ Uses cards on physical supplies to manage the supply chain
◦ Next order card is sent when current supply set is opened
Image by Jean-Baptiste Waldner
10

11. Kanban in Software Development
◦ Methods were adopted for abstract work
◦ Think software development
◦ Kanban can combine with other agile methods
11

12. The Kanban Board
◦ Basic board has 3 columns: to do, doing, done
◦ Backlog items move forward as they progress
◦ Backlog items can move backwards, if necessary
Image by Jeff.lasovski
12

13. Kanban in the Classroom
◦ Courses look like projects
◦ There are some dependencies, but not a lot
◦ Weekly- or module-oriented course framework is implicitly timeboxing
So let’s kanban this!
13

14. My Kanban Board
14

15. A Kanban Board for this Presentation
15

16. ALTERNATIVE METHODS

17. Scrum
◦ No manager, but rather a facilitator
◦ Stand-up meetings
◦ Burndown charts showing work left to do
◦ Might be applicable in group-work oriented classes, such as capstones
17

18. DISCUSSION

19. Obvious Questions
◦ Isn’t this just putting your todo list on the web?
◦ How do students react to this?
◦ Can this work in a team teaching environment?
19

20. Conclusions
◦ This can help manage a classroom
◦ It should be completely transparent to the student
◦ It should not interfere with classroom methods
20