Innovative Practice: Agile Training for Year-Long Capstone Project

This innovative practice full paper describes a two-semester capstone experience that trains students in agile software engineering principles and incorporates the material into building an actual product for an industry partner. Recently, teaching agile software engineering has garnered considerable attention, and research has focused on effective pedagogical approaches, challenges, and outcomes. However, while computer science students are exposed to agile methodologies in their curriculum, and students even use the approach in a project, the experience tends to be brief and non-real-world. In this work, we believe our approach provides a more cohesive learning experience, better prepares students for jobs in industry, and introduces them to incorporating an overall agile mind set. We outline specific activities, timelines, and best practices for managing team projects and providing a better experience for the students. The results of our efforts are reported through retrospectives and reflections with the students over five years.