Curricula and methods on teaching different aspects of agile software development

Abstract

Agile methodologies are the most commonly used software development methodologies nowadays. For this reason, education of software engineering should include this topic at universities. However, the educational method of this topic has still open questions. Higher education lacks traditional curricula and methods in teaching agile software development.

Agile methodologies are based on collaboration and interaction. For this reason, high level teaching of agile methodologies requires not only teaching of theory and practice, but also development of soft skills and of an appropriate set of values. We need to find teaching methods that can develop students in all four aspects: theory, practice, skills, values. This article presents methods for developing all four aspects of agile methodologies. In addition, by describing five different course curricula, it proves these methods can be effectively incorporated into classic university courses.