Second Year Project: Software Development in Large Teams (15 ECTS) (Spring 2022)

Abstract

In collaboration with industrial partners, students will apply Scrum in practice and reason about its application in an environment as realistic as possible.

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.

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:

• Plan, structure, and execute a large-scale software development project as part of a team in collaboration with an industrial partner
• Analyse, select, and apply new technologies (potentially including programming languages)
• Identify and solve teamwork related issues
• Select, apply, and evaluate suitable software engineering practices and tools
• Characterize, analyze, and solve software engineering problems
• Apply Scrum in practice and reflect over its usage
• Reflect on the communication and collaboration within the team and with all other stakeholders
• Share, compare, and discuss with other teams different experiences from the project

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 Learning Diary

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: 1%
• Lectures: 6%
• Assignments: 10%
• Project work, supervision included: 80%
• Exam with preparation: 2%
• Other: 1%

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