Course Leader: Radu Laura-Diana

Home Institution: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, România

Course Overview

Agile software development consists of frequent or continuous delivery of software. The predictability and stability of traditional methods were replaced with flexibility and, consequently, agility, to generate value as quickly as possible. A practical course targeted to develop an agile mindset focused on project success. Students will develop skills for project planning and implementation by applying agile methodologies. The course provides an insight into agile principles, values and practices applied by a wide number by companies in projects development from various fields of activity. Through a team project, students will practice and apply the Scrum framework to give life to a project idea with relevant deliverables in each stage. They will develop specific skills while learning and applying modern project management methodologies.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students should be able to:

• Master agile methodologies terminology.
• Understand agile principles and values.
• Understand the particularities of the various agile frameworks.
• Identify the best agile framework according to the project objectives and characteristics.
• Apply Scrum practices in project planning and development from various fields.

During the course, various exercises will be carried out. The knowledge acquisitions from the exercises will be discussed in the classroom.

Course Content

1. Traditional project management methodologies
   • Waterfall, v-Model, spiral model
   • Agile project management vs. traditional project management
2. The Agile Manifesto - values and principles
3. Agile practices
   • Planning with user stories
   • Team roles and responsibilities
   • Estimating in agile projects
4. Agile frameworks
   • Scrum
     • Introduction
     • Scrum values
     • Scrum roles
     • Scrum artifacts
     • Scrum events
   • Extreme programming (XP)
   • Kanban
   • Crystal family
5. Scaling agile

Instructional Method

The course instructor tries to include different methods of teaching to meet the varying needs of students. The main methods are interactive lectures and games, group work/simulations/exercises between lectures to apply learned concepts.

One final test, pop-up quizzes and a group project are used for assessment.

Required Course Materials

E-tutorials will be provided (in a PowerPoint format).

The course requires the use of Jira or YouTrack software (both freely available online for a limited number of users per team).

Canty, D. (2015), Agile for Project Managers, CRC Press, New York.

Cohn, M. (2004), User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Addison-Wesley. New York.

Stellman, A., Greene, J. (2014), Learning agile: Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean, and Kanban, O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Waters, K. (2012), All About Agile: Agile Management Made Easy!, Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Assessment

Classroom activities and quizzes – 20% of grading

Group project (students must plan and develop a project on a theme selected based their background) – 50% of grading.

Final exam – 30% of grading.