Using Distributed Scrum for Supporting an Online Community: A Qualitative Descriptive Study of Students’ Perceptions

One purpose of higher education is to prepare students for a modern and ever-changing global society characterized by increasing complexity and collaborative environments. Scrum is an agile, widely used framework for project management dealing with the development of complex products. Scrum projects are conducted in small, empowered teams with intense communication, interaction and collaboration between the team members, facilitated by a servant-leader Scrum master. Scrum has been commonly used in professional software development and is also now being adopted in other areas, including education. There have been few studies of the application of Scrum in higher education and very few of them have studied distributed Scrum in an online context. An online learning community has several positive effects for students such as increased learning, engagement, retention and lower risks for isolation and dropouts. Participating in and contributing to a team is dependent on a sense of community, which can be difficult to build up in a distributed environment where members are geographically dispersed and do not have the possibility to meet and communicate face to face. This study examines to what extent and how distributed Scrum can support building an online learning community, from a student perspective. Twenty students, enrolled in an online course in distributed software development, participated in four Scrum projects as members of distributed Scrum teams, each team consisting of five students. Students' perceptions were investigated by conducting semi-structured interviews. The interview transcripts were analyzed according to Rovai's four dimensions of a classroom community. The results indicate that students were very satisfied with their distributed Scrum projects and that they experienced a high degree of flexibility during the projects. The Scrum process promoted and initiated communication and interaction among students and they learned how to communicate and collaborate effectively in an online environment. The transparency in Scrum was perceived as a key factor to open communication and effective collaboration and also contributed to increasing their motivation and engagement in the projects. Another interesting outcome of this study was understanding the importance of creating a team with members who are similar regarding competence level, ambition and preferences in working schedule

Scrum Sim - A Simulation Game to Learn the Scrum Agile Framework

In recent times, organizations have been attempting to shift from Traditional project management methodologies such as waterfall model to incorporate agile methodologies such as scrum for their project development. The main features of these agile methods include incremental and iterative delivery that allows inclusion of the requirement changes at any stage of the project lifecycle and the most commonly used agile method is scrum. As are result of wide usage of agile mythology in the IT industry, scrum framework is now being taught in various software engineering and project management courses. Even though scrum has been introduced in various academic courses, the constraints of time, scope and facilities restrict students from getting hands on experience on real world scenarios. Many employers believe that students graduating of the universities lack the desired skills and practical experience to adopt and implement agile method like scrum. Researchers have suggested that use of simulations or games if used in complement to the traditional class room setting can enhance students learning. During our previous research on the existing software educational games, it was found that there is availability of many games and simulations based on traditional software methodologies i.e. sequential software process but a lesser number of games or simulations are available on agile methodology especially based on scrum. Also the scrum games that are available are mainly card games, board games or toy games such as “Lego Bricks” which have their own limitations. To address this problem, we have developed Scrum Sim a computer based game that simulates scrum process for a software development project. It provides a glimpse of the scrum lifecycle and represents various aspects of scrum framework in a team for a software development project. We present the game, its rules, game play and discuss its validation or evaluation results

Challenges and Paradoxes of Teaching Project Management the Agile Way

This paper discusses challenges and paradoxes for teaching project management (PM) in an Agile way outside of a software development context. Based on a critical analysis of two PM course iterations in a professional masters program, the paper identifies several areas with tensions between established processes, norms, values, and expectations in higher education and the Agile PM course design. Ultimately, the paper finds that fulfilling the professional masters program’s mission (to educate workforce-ready graduates for today’s Agile / hybrid working environments) would require subverting numerous norms, values, and expectations on the course design, the students’, and the lecturers’ sides. Teachers and program directors in higher education can draw on this paper’s findings to identify and manage pitfalls and paradoxes in their own PM course designs, in order to have them convey Agile PM’s principles, values, and techniques effectively while retaining a positive student experience

An Agile Framework for Teaching with Scrum in the IT Project Management Classroom

This paper presents a framework for teaching a complete, semester-long IT project management course with traditional PMI-based content (sans software development) while featuring Scrum as the organizing logic for accomplishing coursework. This framework adapts widely-used Scrum practices from industry for use in the classroom, including how to organize student teams, homework, and activities. Organizing an existing course with Scrum is intended to maximize student learning of traditional project management content, as well as the difficult-to-teach, socially-complex, “soft” skills that lead to Scrum team success. This deep integration of Scrum into a traditional, predictive IT project management course goes well beyond single activities or units without crowding out valuable time and material. A brief overview of the agile philosophy and examples of teaching Scrum in the classroom situate this work in the teaching and learning literature. Classroom-tested Scrum rituals and example artifacts are provided to illustrate how to apply the framework. This group-based, iterative, and hands-on approach equips students to better internalize and understand the complex social interactions involved with a self-organizing team, concepts that are difficult to learn without first-hand experience. The proposed framework will help IS educators implement Scrum practices in their own courses, further addressing industry’s increasing demand for IS professionals with Scrum experience

An investigation into agile learning processes and knowledge sharing practices to prevent identity theft in the online retail organisations

Lack of individual awareness of knowledge sharing practices to prevent identity theft is a significant issue for online retail organisations (OROs). Agile learning processes and sharing of knowledge is essential, but the lack of relevant training inhibits these processes within the online industry. This study identifies the inhibiting factors in the agile learning and knowledge sharing process with recommendations for best practice for organisations and staff to effectively share knowledge on identity theft prevention. Three qualitative case studies were undertaken in OROs in the United Kingdom. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, internal documents and related external material. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis method. The findings identified that individual staff members within OROs from the information security and fraud prevention departments often share their knowledge as a community. However, there is no formal knowledge sharing process or any related training facilitating this exchange. There is a need for agile learning environment in OROs of the United Kingdom. The study offers both theoretical and practical contributions to the extant literature of agile learning of knowledge sharing to prevent identity theft in OROs. Existing learning opportunities are not being used to enhance the knowledge of individuals, and OROs need to increase the skills and trust of their staff to share knowledge efficiently. This study identifies the systemic weaknesses inherent in the process of knowledge sharing and existing training provision within OROs. It provides ORO managers with practical guidelines in facilitating trust between individuals and developing appropriate training systems to educate staff on sharing organisational knowledge. This study contributes by extending the knowledge sharing framework proposed by Chong et al. (2011), for enhanced individual knowledge sharing processes to prevent identity theft within OROs. It also identifies OROs weaknesses in knowledge sharing learning processes for theft prevention and offers prevention guidelines and recommendations for developing effective agile learning environments