Second Year Project: Software Development in Large Teams (15 ECTS) (Spring 2023)

Abstract

In collaboration with industrial partners, students will apply Scrum in practice and reason about its application in a controlled yet realistic environment.

Description

Students will collaborate with industrial partners on industrially relevant projects provided by the industrial partners. They will experience how it is to work for a real industrial project in a setting as realistic as possible, while appling in practice all the software engineering skill they have learned during their earlier courses and learning new technologies.
Student groups will learn to apply Scrum – one of the agile frameworks – in practice by performing several short iterations in their projects. Each group of 7–9 students will be supported by: a product owner from the industrial partner, a scrum master enrolled in a master level elective course, and an agile coach from the industry.
Semester layout. The course will comprise four blocks. In the first block, week 1 and 2, you will be involved in the formation of the groups and the matchmaking with the industrial partners. During the second block, week 3 and 4, you will kickoff the project with your Scrum team. Finally, in the third block, week 5 to 17, you will run six two-week sprints and participate in two feedback sessions. The course will conclude with a last week of submissions, demos, and celebrations before the exam session.

Formal prerequisites

• You are enrolled on the BSc study program in software development.
• You know the basics of software engineering, e.g., different software process models and related activities, corresponding to what is covered in the BSc course Analysis, Design and Software Architecture.
• You are able to apply some programming language to construct fully functional software programs, corresponding, e.g., to what is covered in the BSc course Analysis, Design and Software Architecture. 
• You are aware of the basic techniques for planning and conducting a software development project in a small team of 5-7 students.

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• Apply Scrum in a large-scale software development project as part of a team in cooperation with an industrial partner
• Select and apply (new) technologies (potentially including programming languages) within the context of the project
• Identify and solve teamwork related issues
• Select and apply suitable software engineering practices and tools
• Identify and solve software engineering problems
• Compare and discuss with other teams the different experiences and learnings from the project
• Reflect on the project in terms of learnings gained from a software engineering and teamwork perspective

Learning activities

Students take active part in a software development team working on a large project from the ground up. The project is by design too large to be created by two or three people in the time allotted and the students are required to efficiently split the work up amongst themselves, taking individual responsibility for a substantial part of the project by themselves. Students work actively with an external partner and collaboratively build and manage the product backlog, plan the work in sprint planning meetings, and review the work done in the end of each sprint.

Mandatory activities

All students must comply with the following mandatory activities to be admitted to the exam:

1. Participate in the Scrum simulation
2. Participate in feedback session 1
3. Participate in feedback session 2

Mandatory activities are associated with a set of mandatory hand-ins:
- Group Hand-ins: Feedback Session slide set, Process Overview document, Technical Overview document
- Individual Hand-in: Project Journal

Mandatory activities are designed to provide you with the practical understanding to start the project effectively (mandatory activity 1) and a forum in which to practice the ILOs with the teachers while also receiving formative feedback and feedforward on the team activities.
Mandatory hand-ins are designed to provide you the framework to work with the ILOs, and they are an opportunity to receive feedback from the teaching assistant assigned to your team.

In case of failure in executing the mandatory activities, there will be mechanisms in place to allow for a second attempt. The format of the second attempt will be dependent on the number of students that will have to perform the activity as a second attempt. In case of failure in the submission of the mandatory hand-ins, a second attempt will be provided.

The student will receive the grade NA (not approved) at the ordinary exam, if the mandatory activities are not approved and the student will use an exam attempt.

Course literature

• Beck, Kent, et al. "Manifesto for agile software development." (2001).
• Schwaber, Ken, and Jeff Sutherland. "The scrum guide." Scrum Alliance 2020.
• Project manual

Student Activity Budget

Estimated distribution of learning activities for the typical student

• Preparation for lectures and exercises: 3%
• Lectures: 12%
• Assignments: 5%
• Project work, supervision included: 60%
• Exam with preparation: 20%

Ordinary exam

Exam type:
D: Submission of written work with following oral, Internal (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.

reexam

Exam type:
D: Submission of written work with following oral, Internal (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.

Time and date