2014-12, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas

Various studies show that the agile method has become a mainstream methodology for software development. When agile pioneers introduced this approach, they executed very successful projects which lead to the enormous popularity of agile development. With becoming mainstream, less experienced teams started to apply the agile approaches and news about failed agile projects appeared. This raises the question, what it needs to conduct successful agile projects. In a qualitative study we asked IT companies about the essential success factors in their successful agile projects. We found that there was a strong focus on engineering and management best practices. We found that when these practices did not work, mature teams sensed that following a recipe is not sufficient, and they started adapting the agile process to their needs. Applying a sense-making methodology like the Cynefin framework, theoretically explains our observations in the study.

2014, Greiwe, Stephanie, Kropp, Martin, Mateescu, Magdalena

2013-12, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas

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. This is to a great extent due to the lack of skilled personnel. In this paper we propose a more holistic approach for teaching agile software development, in which the required agile practices and values are not only integrated theoretically into our courses but also practically applied. The proposed concept was realized in a new a course at Zurich University of Applied Sciences during 2012. The evaluation shows very encouraging results.

2013, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas, Ardis, Mark, Cowling, Tony, Bohner, Shawn

2014-10-03T00:00:00Z, Mateescu, Magdalena, Kropp, Martin, Greiwe, Stephanie, Zahn, Carmen

2014, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas

2013, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas, Ardis, Mark

2014-07-08T00:00:00Z, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas, Mateescu, Magdalena, Zahn, Carmen

2014, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas, Greiwe, Stephanie

2013, Kropp, Martin, Meier, Andreas, Spillner, Andreas, Lichter, Horst

Über den Hype hinaus, der um agile Softwareentwicklung entstanden ist, zeigen verschiedene Umfragen, dass dieses Vorgehen in der Praxis in verschiedener Hinsicht tatsächlich zu Verbesserungen in der Durchführung von Software-Projekten führt. Firmen, die agile Methoden einsetzen, geben an, dass sie seither zufriedener mit ihrem Entwicklungsprozess sind und insbesondere der Umgang mit Anforderungsänderungen sich wesentlich verbessert hat. Andererseits sind entsprechend ausgebildete Fachleute jedoch Mangelware. In der Praxis sind deshalb Software Ingenieure mit Kompetenzen in agilen Methoden sehr gefragt. Was bedeutet dies für die Software-Technik Ausbildung an Hochschulen? Was sind die speziellen Herausforderungen? Wie kann agile Software Entwicklung, die neben konkreten Techniken und Praktiken auf der individuellen Ebene, auch auf Team-Ebene und Werte-Ebene spezielle Anforderungen stellt, überhaupt vermittelt werden? Wie kann die Ausbildung von agiler Softwareentwicklung in die Ingenieur-Ausbildung integriert werden? In diesem Artikel stellen wir unser Konzept zur Ausbildung von agilen Methoden an Hochschulen vor und berichten über unsere Erfahrungen als Dozierende.