Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a Remote Agile Software Engineering Project Course During COVID-19

Presentation slides of the paper "Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a Remote Agile Software Engineering Project Course During COVID-19", presented at the combined CSEE&T'22 and HICSS-55 SEET conference in January 2022.

Authors: Christoph Matthies, Ralf Teusner, Michael Perscheid
Affiliation: Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany

Transcript

1. Hasso Plattner Institute
   University of Potsdam, Germany
   christoph.matthies@hpi.de
   @chrisma0
   Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a
   Remote Agile Software Engineering
   Project Course During COVID-19
   Christoph Matthies, Ralf Teusner, Michael Perscheid
   virtual conference, January ’22
   Image: Video Call by Vectors Point from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

2. 2
   Case Study Context
   An undergraduate Agile software engineering course
   “methods, concepts, and technologies that
   help successfully deliver large software
   products developed by multiple teams. [1]”
   [1]ihttps://hpi.de/plattner/teaching/archive/winter-term-2020-21/
   softwaretechnik-ii-agile-software-development-in-large-teams.html
   Image: Mortar Board by Catia Marsh Mallow from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

3. Case Study Context
   3
   Course contents, context and study motivation
   ■ Practical project course featuring multiple student teams
   ■ Teams collaborate to build a common product
   ■ Scrum and Kanban are taught and used in practice
   ■ Close to real-world software development experiences:
   large-scale collaboration, software architecture,
   work organization, customer management
   COVID pandemic:
   switch from in-person teamwork to completely virtual setup
   Image: Virus by Nawicon from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

4. Main Research Question
   4
   The aim of this study
   Research Question:
   What challenges and opportunities
   occurred in a multi-team Agile university project course
   taught (emergency) remotely for the first time?
   Image: Question by KonKapp from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

5. Case Study Context
   5
   ■ Experienced student tutors participate in all regular student
   team meetings, act as knowledgeable mentors
   ■ Teaching team member takes on role of project customer
   supplying requirements and feature wishes
   ■ Teaching team members available for
   questions and comments
   Teaching team support
   Image: High Five by Adrien Coquet from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

6. Data Collection
   6
   ■ Two main methods of data collection:
   □ Semi-structured notes of regular teaching team meetings
   □ Anonymous, free-text end-of-term course evaluations
   ■ Items included that received at least two separate mentions
   ■ Iteratively grouped into topic cluster
   Categorized items as challenges or opportunities
   Perceptions of educators and students
   Image: Data Collection by Becris from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

7. Remote Collab. Challenges
   7
   ■ Encountered challenges of emergency remote teaching
   experience mirror previous reports
   □ Especially regarding remote lectures [2]
   However, we also noticed positives of remote Agile software
   engineering education and teamwork that were not anticipated
   Perceived challenges and opportunities
   [2] Watermeyer, R., Crick, T., Knight, C. et al. COVID-19 and digital disruption in UK universities: afflictions and
   affordances of emergency online migration. High Educ 81, 623–641 (2021).
   Image: Challenge by LUTFI GANI AL ACHMAD from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

8. Positives of Remote Collab.
   8
   ■ Results: 13 topic clusters on positives of remote collaboration in
   undergraduate SE project course
   ■ Surprised by aspects of the remote collaboration approach
   that were deemed explicitly beneficial
   ■ Other educators also thought “transforming to online teaching
   would be much harder than what they experienced” [3]
   Results of comment analysis regarding opportunities
   [3] Hjelsvold, R., Nykvist, S., Lorås, M., Bahmani, A., Krokan, A. Educators’ Experiences Online:
   How COVID-19 Encouraged Pedagogical Change in CS Education. No. 4 UDIT Norsk konferanse
   for utdanning og didaktikk i IT-fagene. (2020)
   Image: Positive by Ömer Demirsoy from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

9. Positives of Remote Collab.
   9
   Stable communication structures
   ■ Teams' communication & organizational structures did not
   drastically change from in-person to remote setup
   ■ Inter-team communication was overwhelmingly digital
   in previous in-person projects
   ■ Instant messaging is heavily present in modern life, sending
   a chat message even in co-located teams is not unusual
   Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
   Image: Smartphone by IconMark from NounProject.com
   

   View Slide

10. Positives of Remote Collab.
    10
    Deeper connection to teaching team
    ■ Tutors spontaneously asked to join team video calls when
    questions or issues arose
    ■ Not possible in in-person meetings, which might not even take
    place in a shared space that can be easily reached
    ■ Course tutors reported improved connections to the teams
    through instant messaging in the remote setup
    Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
    Image: Video Call by Vectors Point from NounProject.com
    

    View Slide

11. Positives of Remote Collab.
    11
    Easier organization of team building activities
    ■ Organizing team-building activities, finding common time &
    place, reported as more straightforward in remote teams
    ■ Efficient virtual communication setup already present, virtual
    collaborative team activities were quick to set up
    ■ Mentioned examples included Scribble.io,
    Among Us, or virtual Settlers of Catan
    Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
    Image: Game by Lukasz M. Pogoda from NounProject.com
    

    View Slide

12. Positives of Remote Collab.
    12
    Documentation by default
    ■ Digital collaboration tools lead to interactions and team decisions
    being documented by default
    ■ Especially reported for Retrospective meetings
    □ Team issues & solutions persisted in digital spaces
    □ Readily available in next meeting
    ■ In in-person course iterations, progress on improvement
    actions often not tracked because they were forgotten
    Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
    Image: Whiteboard by Amiryshakiel from NounProject.com
    

    View Slide

13. Positives of Remote Collab.
    13
    Increased Pair Programming
    ■ Remote course featured more Pair Programming
    ■ Extensive use of code collaboration tools, e.g. LiveShare
    ■ Virtual setup does not require physical co-location
    in front of a shared computer
    ■ Both “driver” and “navigator” can use their customized
    computing setups, which is more comfortable
    Extract of observed positives of a remote agile SE course
    [4] VisualStudio Code Liveshare https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/services/live-share/
    Image: Pair Programming by Creative Stall from NounProject.com
    

    View Slide

14. ■ Study of student and educator perceptions of emergency remote
    agile software engineering project course
    ■ Present 10 challenges of remote collaboration in student teams and
    offer countermeasures based on our teaching experience
    ■ Identify 13 positives of remote collaboration and action items
    Ongoing discussion on how to maintain
    positives in future courses
    Conclusions
    14
    Summarized study results and information on full paper
    Image: Conclusion by Eko Purnomo from NounProject.com
    

    View Slide

15. Summary
    15
    christoph.matthies@hpi.de @chrisma0
    HPI, University of Potsdam, Germany
    

    View Slide