Development of soft skills among IT students through project-based work using the Kanban methodology

Abstract The study aims to examine the impact of iterative teamwork using the Kanban methodology on the development of information technology (IT) students’ soft skills in the process of creating Django web applications . A longitudinal study was conducted among 35 students of the "Applied Informatics" program at the Krakow University of Economics throughout eight academic sessions (which included six iterations). A self-assessment method on a 5-point scale was applied to evaluate four key soft skills: teamwork, communication, problem-solving and debugging, and time management with task planning. In addition, the overall level of competence in working with Django projects was assessed. The selection of the studied skills was carried out based on expert evaluation by 12 specialists from the IT industry, with Kendall's coefficient of concordance amounting to 0.67. The research revealed differentiated dynamics in the development of various types of soft skills. Problem-solving and debugging demonstrated the most consistent progress, with the share of students who evaluated themselves at high levels increasing from 28.6 to 80.0%. Group collaboration and communication skills showed an initially overestimated self-assessment, followed by stabilisation after an adaptation period. Time management and task planning were characterised by gradual development, with medium-to-high levels (3–4 points) dominating.