Scrum2Kanban: Integrating Kanban and Scrum in a University Software Engineering Capstone Course

Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in professional software development. This usually means students are introduced to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However, as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of Kanban into the course

DevOps is Bigger than IT: Driving Digital Transformation in Libraries

The DevOps movement represents a paradigm shift in software development, but there are misconceptions about what it really means. It’s much more nuanced than simply adding a DevOps engineer to your team or asking systems administrators and developers to play well together. At its core, DevOps is about culture change. In this talk, we will define the CALMS framework of DevOps and the people, technical, and organizational factors that challenge its adoption. We will share specific examples of how DevOps is changing the way we work on digital library projects at Ohio State University Libraries and how its universal principles can drive large-scale digital transformation in libraries. Presented at Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Spring 2020 Membership MeetingSlidesSpeaker notesNo embarg

Migrating agile methods to standardized development practice

Situated process and quality frame-works offer a way to resolve the tensions that arise when introducing agile methods into standardized software development engineering. For these to be successful, however, organizations must grasp the opportunity to reintegrate software development management, theory, and practice

Beyond Surveys: Analyzing Software Development Artifacts to Assess Teaching Efforts

This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents an approach of using software development artifacts to gauge student behavior and the effectiveness of changes to curriculum design. There is an ongoing need to adapt university courses to changing requirements and shifts in industry. As an educator it is therefore vital to have access to methods, with which to ascertain the effects of curriculum design changes. In this paper, we present our approach of analyzing software repositories in order to gauge student behavior during project work. We evaluate this approach in a case study of a university undergraduate software development course teaching agile development methodologies. Surveys revealed positive attitudes towards the course and the change of employed development methodology from Scrum to Kanban. However, surveys were not usable to ascertain the degree to which students had adapted their workflows and whether they had done so in accordance with course goals. Therefore, we analyzed students' software repository data, which represents information that can be collected by educators to reveal insights into learning successes and detailed student behavior. We analyze the software repositories created during the last five courses, and evaluate differences in workflows between Kanban and Scrum usage

A dynamic simulation of a lean and agile manufacturing system

The integration of just-in-time and lean principles in agile manufacturing plays an important role in enhancing the operational performance of manufacturing systems. In this paper, we address this issue by (i) building a set of performance criteria for a typical manufacturing system, (ii) developing a system dynamics model for the system, and (iii) performing experimental “what-if” simulation analyses. Using a system dynamics simulation methodology, the impact of the application of lean and just-in-time policies on a traditional inventory-focused manufacturing system is investigated. System dynamics modelling is used to capture the dynamic causal linkages between different components of the manufacturing system. Different scenarios are generated in order to investigate the dynamics of the system under assumed demand scenarios. The results of the simulation study reveal that manufacturing systems can benefit from the introduction of lean and just-in-time principles, depending on the extent to which the necessary structural changes are implemented. The paper concludes by providing useful managerial insights for effective implementation of lean and agile manufacturing concepts

EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF PROCUREMENT METHODS ON LAST PLANNER® SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

Previous studies have examined various factors that influence the implementation of the Last Planner System (LPS) in construction projects. However, there is limited documented evidence on the influence of procurement methods on the implementation of the LPS. The aim of this study, therefore; is to understand the influence of some selected procurement methods on the implementation of the LPS using case study approach. Three in-depth case studies were conducted on building and highways projects in the UK. The projects were managed with the LPS principles with dissimilar procurement methods. In addition to document analysis and physical observation, 28 in-depth-interviews were conducted. The investigation shows that the prevailing traditional mindset exhibited by the designers in the traditional design bid build (DBB) influences the quality of promises and commitments that could be made during the lookahead planning. From the study, it seems no single procurement method is a sure way to the full application of the LPS process on a project. The study observes that irrespective of the procurement route used, a mindset change towards collaboration among the different stakeholders on the project is fundamental to successful LPS implementation. For instance, on projects where DBB was used and the subcontractors were in framework agreement, the LPS implementation worked well among the subcontractors. The study recommends that the procurement approach to be used on LPS projects should not be too firm, but lithe enough to integrate collaborative working among the different stakeholders on the project for a smooth workflow

Agile development model in multi-project environment

Abstract. Agile software development has slowly but steadily become a part of modern software industry. Older development models, such as waterfall, are seen obsolete and less flexible in today’s software development environment. But how do current agile methods fare in place where there are multiple ongoing projects and sprint goals can suddenly change? This thesis observes current agile models in multi-project software development environment and tries to improve current model the evaluated team has. The target team is a small, remote branch of medium sized organization consisting of nine members. The team utilized Scrumban — Scrum with Kanban — but it faced some problems. Rather than having one or two big projects, the branch did many smaller scale projects, and current model did not fit in such environment as good as it was thought. The team had some difficulties on communication between different projects, there was a noticeable amount of “ad hoc work” (issues that were not logged anywhere and were done independently) and metering the progress of the project was hard sometimes. A better model for the team was in need. First, the evaluation team is briefly introduced and some more info on Scrumban, the Sprint cycle and what kind of projects the team usually has is given. Data gathering plans — surveys and interviews — is also described. After examining the survey and interview results, quality measurement, work cycle, resource allocation and learning were the topics that were widely discussed. Four goals were made: streamlining the work cycle, a way to measure progress, making learning easier during the work cycle and way to monitor the ad hoc tasks. After some analysis, the decision was to take values and principles from Kanban, such as workflow visualization and limiting Work In Progress (WIP). The evaluation period lasted through two Sprints. The evaluation period was during COVID-19 pandemic but fortunately that did not affect that much to it. After the evaluation, feedback session and discussion about the new model was had. The overall impressions on better Jira board visualisation (personal swimlanes) were overwhelmingly positive and team decided to keep them after the evaluation ended. On other features, the team felt that they were good idea but needed some more time on execution. Overall, the team felt like the new model improved their ability to work agile but there was still some field on improvement, particularly on the learning field. To sum up the thesis, the four principles that might help the team to choose and agile method are introduced: find what team is good at and what is lacking, do not be afraid of experimenting, think what parts you could automate and reflect on your changes.Ketterän kehittämisen malli moniprojektiympäristössä. Tiivistelmä. Ketterä ohjelmistokehitys on hiljalleen mutta tasaisisesti tullut osaksi nykyistä ohjelmistoteollisuutta. Vanhemmat kehitysmallit, kuten vesiputous, nähdään vanhentuneina ja vähemmän joustavina nykypäivän ohjelmistokehitysympäristössä. Mutta miten nykyiset agile-menetelmät pärjäävät paikassa, missä on useampi projekti meneillänsä ja sprintin tavoitteet voivat muuttua yhtäkkiä? Tämä tutkielma havainnoi nykyisiä agile-malleja moniprojektisessa ohjelmistokehitysympäristössä ja yrittää parantaa arvioidun tiimin nykyistä mallia. Kohdetiimi on pieni yhdeksän ihmisen etäinen haara keskisuuressa yrityksessä. Tiimi käytti Scrumbania (Scrum Kanbanilla), mutta heillä on ollut ongelmia. Yhden tai kahden suuren projektin sijaan haaralla on paljon pieniä projekteja, ja nykyinen malli ei toiminut kyseisessä ympäristössä niin hyvin, kuin ajateltiin. Tiimillä on ollut vaikeuksia tiedonvälityksen kanssa projektien välillä, huomattava osa työstä tehtiin ”ad hoc työnä” (työ, jota ei kirjattu minnekään ja tehty itsenäisesti) ja projektin kehityksen mittaaminen on vaikeaa välillä. On aika paremmalle mallille. Ensiksi kohdetiimi on esitelty lyhyesti ja enemmän tietoa Scrumbanista, Sprint-jaksosta ja minkälaisia projekteja tiimillä yleensä on annettu. Tiedon keruu menetelmät (kyselyt ja haastattelut) on myös kuvattu. Kyselyn ja haastattelun tulosten tutkimisen jälkeen kävi ilmi, että laadunmittaus, työjakso, resurssien allokoiminen ja oppiminen olivat eniten keskustelua herättäviä aiheita. Tehtiin neljä tavoitetta: työjakson virtaviivaistus, tapa mitata kehitystä, oppiminen työjaksolla helpommaksi ja ad hoc tekemisen valvonta. Pienen analyysin jälkeen päätös on ottaa arvoja ja periaatteita Kanbanista, kuten esimerkiksi työnkulun visualisointi ja keskeneräisen työn (Work in Progress, WIP) rajoitteet. Arvioinnin ajanjakso kesti kahden Sprintin verran. Arvioiminen oli COVID-19 pandemian aikaan, mutta se ei onneksi vaikuttanut juuri paljoakaan siihen. Arvioinnin jälkeen oli palautesessio sekä keskustelua uudesta mallista. Vaikutelmat Jira-taulun visualisointiin (henkilökohtaiset työjakaumat) olivat yleisesti ylivoimaisen positiivisia ja tiimi päätti pitää ne arvioinnin loppumisen jälkeen. Tiimin mielestä muut toiminnot olivat hyvä lisä, mutta tarvitsivat lisää aikaa toteutukseen. Yleisesti tiimistä tuntui, että uusi malli paransi heidän kykyänsä tehdä ketterästi, mutta olisi vielä muutamassa kohtaa parantamista, etenkin oppimisen kannalta. Lopputyön summaamiseksi, neljä periaatetta, jotka saattavat auttaa tiimiä valitsemaan ketterän menetelmän esitellään: löydä se, missä tiimisi on hyvä ja mitä puuttuu; älä pelkää kokeilla; mieti, mitä kohtia voit automatisoida; ja pohdiskele muutoksiasi

Construction Agility - An Integrated Management System

Construction Agility is a management system to be utilized by project managers to create a visual representation of work in progress on the jobsite. This visual component of Construction Agility increases awareness of job site activities among the general contractor, subcontractors, and visitors, thus increasing safety. The system is a Kanban, otherwise known as a batch system, that displays critical activities with physical moveable cards that display the task, the duration, and the proceeding party. There is a focus on handoffs which requires a willingness to open communication. The visual appeal and simplicity of the batch system for all to view promotes accountability among participating parties. This also doubles as a check and balance for completed tasks, increasing quality. The backbone of this system is not alone the visuals, but the collaborative and communicative team culture that is fostered around it. This team environment and learning culture is a facilitated through periodic reflection and input from all participants. With the proper application, Construction Agility should decrease waste and increase productivity, safety, turnover rates, and communication