Several recent surveys show that agile methodologies like Scrum, Extreme Programming and Kanban have been successfully adopted by many companies for product development. However, the same surveys show that only few of the agile practices are applied consequently and thoroughly. This is to a great extent due to the lack of skilled personnel. University is the place where you can develop such skilled personnel. Like any other discipline taught in a university , “Agile” could also be a part of university curriculum and like other graduates produced by universities, an Agile project manager could also be produced. This session analyzes the current situation of teaching Agile at university level.

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Teaching “Agile” in Universities

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Who am I ?
Javaid Ali
• Bachelor of Commerce – University of Karachi, Pakistan
• Master of Commerce – University of Karachi, Pakistan
• Master of Business Administration (MBA) –
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Illinois, USA
• Agile Expert Certified (AEC) – VMEdu, USA
• Six Sigma Green Belt Professional Certified (SSGBP) –
VMEdu, USA
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INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Corporate Experience - I have worked in telecommunication, fabrication, pharmaceutical and
entertainment industries for around 9 years. Worked in the areas of system analysis, marketing,
production and business development. SBC, T-Mobile, ACCA, Prescon Associates Private Ltd, Pakistan,
Events and Conference International Pakistan.
Academic Experience - I am associated with academia since 1995. Worked with the following
institutions:
• South Western Illinois College, Swansea, IL, USA
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL, USA
• International Islamic University, Malaysia
• King Abdul Aziz University, KSA
• MITM College, KSA
• Alwadi International School, KSA
• Pakistan Air force and Navy academic Institutions
• Presently working as fulltime faculty at CBE UAE University
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PRESENTATION FOCUS…!
• My presentation today is gong to be a preface of my research I am doing on the topic of
incorporating “Agile” in university curriculum, with a focus on universities in UAE.
• My research model is based on the paper of Dr. M. Kropp from Univ. of Appl. Science,
Windisch, Switzerland, which he presented in a conference in San Francisco in 2013
• In this paper I will analyze the situation on the industry side in more detail to find out,
which skills are missing and come up with a proposal how education on university level
can help to improve this.
• “Several recent surveys show that agile methodologies like Scrum, Extreme
Programming and Kanban have been successfully adopted by many companies for
software development. However, the same surveys show that only few of the agile
practices are applied consequently and thoroughly”. IMVS Fokus Report 2013
• This is to a great extent due to the lack of skilled personnel. The place to produce these
skilled personnel is primarily a UNIVERSITY.
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FEW WORDS ON “AGILE” EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES
• Agile software methodologies are quickly becoming widely used in a variety of industry
projects. As these techniques become more and more prevalent in industry, it is becoming
essential that they are incorporated into traditional computer science curricula.
• Although there are some agile practices that would have to be added to a traditional
curriculum, there are many that are typically already covered to a limited extent. Webster
University has developed an Agile Software Development graduate course in which the main
ideas are discussed, and implemented via student projects.
• University of Maryland has an Agile introduction course as their capstone course. And there
are many other universities.
• Although agile methods have been occasionally used in higher education for the last 10 years
or so, the use of agile methods particularly in software engineering education is still a
relatively new phenomenon.
• My focus on “Agile” is not solely from the software development project aspect rather I
propose to have Agile education in a more generalized project management way.
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KNOWLEDGE OF GRADUATES
Items Completely
Disagree
Disagree Agree Complete Agree
Computer Science
graduates (M.Sc.)
have
sufficient knowledge
of agile
methodologies
5% 53% 30% 9%
Computer Science
undergraduates
(B.Sc.) have
sufficient knowledge
of agile
methodologies
8% 60% 28% 4%
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AGILE AS PART THE COMPUTER SCIENCE CURRICULUM
Items Completely
Disagree
Disagree Agree Completely Agree
Agile development
should be an
integral part of the
Computer Science
curriculum
0% 5% 49% 46%
Agile should not be
taught at university,
it is better learned
on the job
34% 48% 12% 7%
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RELATED WORK
• Though agile software development has been around for more than a decade
even before the famous Agile Manifesto, teaching agile software development
has only drawn some attention in educational and research conferences in the
last few years. A reason for this might be that agile development is not based
on a green-field theory but has been developed from practice.
• In his book “Why Software Engineering Programs Should Teach Agile
Software Development”, Yael Dubinsky discuss reasons why software
engineering programs should teach agile software development. He
emphasizes that software engineers not only need technical skills but also
social and ethical ones, which are both corner stones of agile development. In
a case study on Agile Principles in Academic Education written by Bernd
Bruegge, the author emphasizes that theoretical lectures about agile
development are not enough, but that students have to apply agile methods to
really internalize them.
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BUILDING NEW CURRICULUM WITH AGILE
METHODS
• At UAEU University Graduates of our Bachelor- and Master- programs are very well
accepted by a wide range of companies. At our department we have been facing a big
challenge when we have been building new Computing Curriculum. We inspired in
Computing Curricula 2005 [8], IS 2002 [12] and MSIS 2000 [16], ACM and so on but
there is no special focus on agile development in these curricula.
• In our MIS curriculum the courses we offer are System Analysis and Design, Project
Management, Introduction to Programming & Database Design. I am teaching System
Analysis and Design. I had some difficult convincing the curriculum committee to add
the Agile topic in the course. Though Agile had already been there in the books we are
using but it was being taught in a highly superficial manner rather as an additional
methodology to the planned traditional approach. My emphasis was on teaching Agile
as a focus topic for the system analysis and design and project management course.
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SOME REASONS FOR INCLUDING
AGILE TOPIC INTO THE CURRICULUM:
• I have been interested in agile methods right after I was exposed to the Agile project
management in 2009. I didn’t hear about it in my MBA at SIUE.
• I am in the conviction that agile methods and techniques used for right projects can
contribute to software project success.
• Results of the initial survey I conducted shows that not only the awareness of agile
methods in the UAE is rather low but there is also lack of developer skills in agile
techniques.
• We have finally decided that our students should have to be taught agile approaches.
But the question: “When in the curriculum should agile methods be introduced?” is yet
to be resolved. Though I have incorporated the Agile topic in the course and my
students know about Scrum to a great extent.
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(I AM ON A MISSION) AGILE IN MIS COURSES
• The solution is influenced by several aspects. First from my point of view students
should know both approaches to software development – rigorous and agile. The main
reason for that conviction is that agile methods are not suitable for every project type.
• Still into transition, we have decided to include Agile into our curriculum:
• Teach agile techniques in the programming courses.
• Introduce SW development methodologies, define methodologies classification criteria,
define assumptions and principles of rigorous and agile approaches, describe main
representatives of rigorous and agile methodologies.
• Teach Agile in the project management course.
• Limitations: Professors are not available with the required knowledge on Agile
techniques and methodologies. I am on a mission..! Lack of know how of Agile at the
employer end. Makes it a vicious cycle.
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AGILE FOCUSED SYSTEM DESIGN COURSE
The following three competency levels must be considered before designing an
Agile course:
• Agile Values
• Management Practices
• Engineering Practices
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AGILE COMPETENCES
• Mastering the technical skills or engineering practices, builds the foundation for
being able to develop high quality product.
• On the second level come the agile management practices. They define how agile
projects are organized and run. Agile management practices include iterative planning,
short release cycles, small releases, strong customer involvement and highly interactive
teams. Management practices are typically team aspects, which require the
appropriate social competences.
• On top of these competences come the agile values, which are articulated in the agile
manifesto and are based on characteristics like mutual respect, openness, and courage
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SYSTEM ANALYSIS & DESIGN COURSE AT UAEU
• The many skills and talents required of the system analyst (not just programming!)
• The system development lifecycle (SDLC) as a project management framework
• AGILE methodology (Scrum/XP)
• The types of feasibility assessed by the analyst
• The systems analysis activities and tasks carried out to define system requirements
• The entity-relationship diagram (ERD) for modeling data requirements
• Identifying events for decomposing a system into processes
• The data flow diagram (DFD) for modeling processing requirements
• Generating alternative system design solutions
• Prototyping, CASE tools, information gathering techniques, communication skills,
and other concepts and techniques needed to complete analysis and design tasks
•
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CONCLUSION
• We have just defined our new curriculum. Based on the results of an
initial survey that have exposed low level of awareness of agile
methods in the UAE and lack of developer skills in agile techniques, we
have decided to teach agile approaches. We are still in the transition of
define clear cut principles to teach Agile in the courses.
• I am working on designing an introduction to Agile course for the MIS
curriculum
• The AgileME platform is hopefully going to serve as an efficient
platform for the promotion of Agile techniques. I am glad to be a small
part of this effort. I wish to bring more and more agility in my campus
and in other universities in the UAE. And I am glad I have rung the bell
on the right time.
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17. AGILE MEAGILE ME
Thank You
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