Why Software Engineering Programs Should Teach Agile Software Development

Orit Hazzan
Department of Edu. in Technology & Science
Technion Israel Institute of Technology
[email protected]
Yael Dubinsky
Department of Computer Science
Technion Israel Institute of Technology
[email protected]

Abstract
In this paper we propose ten reasons why it is important, suitable
and timely to introduce agile software development into software
engineering programs in the academia. These reasons address
technical, social and cognitive issues.
Keywords: software engineering, agile software development,
teaching agile software development, software engineering educa-
tion.
Introduction
In this paper we propose ten reasons why it is important, suitable
and timely to introduce agile software development into software
engineering programs. Our contribution is based on our compre-
hensive teaching and research experience with respect to agile
software development, both in the industry and in the academia,
during the last five years.
Our paper is aimed at two main communities: software engineer-
ing practitioners and software engineering educators. Since the
adoption by the industry of the agile approach is becoming main-
stream and is taking place in practice, software engineering practi-
tioners can use the arguments presented here to explain the
industry's interests and needs to people in academia; software en-
gineering educators can use the arguments presented in this paper
to improve their understanding of why agile software development
should be taught at university level.
Why teach agile software development?
This section presents ten arguments, presented in short in Table 1,
why software engineering programs should include agile software
development methods (hereinafter referred to as AGILE). The
order of the presented arguments does not necessarily reflect their
importance.
1. AGILE was evolved and is applied in the industry
2. AGILE educates for teamwork
3. AGILE deals with human aspects
4. AGILE encourages diversity
5. AGILE supports learning processes
6. AGILE improves habits of mind
7. AGILE emphasizes management skills
8. AGILE enhances ethical norms
9. AGILE highlights a comprehensive image of software engi-
neering
10. AGILE provides a single teachable framework
Table 1. Ten reasons why software engineering programs
should teach agile software development

1. AGILE was evolved and is applied in the industry: AGILE
was evolved by practitioners working in the software industry (cf.
the case of Extreme Programming, developed by Kent Beck), and
clearly, it has become mainstream. An illustration which reflects
the massive attention AGILE is receiving, is the vast attendance at
the Agile conferences (e.g., more than 1,000 participants attended
the Agile 2006 conference that took place in Minneapolis in the
Summer of 2006). As AGILE is becoming prevalent in the indus-
try, its teaching in the academia is just natural.
2. AGILE educates for teamwork: According to the Software
Engineering 2004 Curriculum
1
, software engineering students
should acquire skills, beyond the technical and scientific ones,
such as teamwork-related ones. Since agile software development
is based on teamwork [2], it is only natural to integrate teamwork-
oriented skills, such as retrospective processes and communication
skills, in the teaching process of agile software development. Fur-
ther, since it is most natural to teach agile software development in
a teamwork-oriented environment, there is no need to introduce
the topic of teamwork artificially; rather, a teamwork-based teach-
ing environment can and, in fact is recommended, to be used in
the teaching of agile software development for the introduction of
teamwork-related topics.
3. AGILE deals with human aspects: DeMarco and Lister [3],
Tomayko and Hazzan [12], as well as others, acknowledge the
importance attributed to human (i.e., cognitive and social) aspects
of software engineering. Accordingly, human-related topics in-
volved in software development processes should receive more
attention in software engineering education. Since two of the agile
manifesto ideas (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/, see Table 2),
namely Individuals and interactions over processes and tools and
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation, specifically
address people (developers, customers and other stakeholders), it
seems that agile software development may be an appropriate am-
bassador for delivering the importance of human aspects of soft-
ware engineering as well.
4. AGILE encourages diversity: Diversity can be expressed in
terms of culture, perspectives, gender, minorities, life styles, na-
tionalities and other factors. Regardless of the shape the diversity
takes, studies tell us that diversity benefits societies that welcome

1
Software Engineering 2004 - Curriculum Guidelines for Under-
graduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering, A Volume of
the Computing Curricula Series, developed by The J oint Task
Force on Computing Curricula IEEE Computer Society and the
Association for Computing Machinery,
http://sites.computer.org/ccse/SE2004Volume.pdf.

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Page 1 March 2007 Volume 32 Number 2
it in general (see for example [6]), and software development
teams in particular [1]. In addition, in the context of the software
industry, since more and more companies are going global, diver-
sity is becoming an integral characteristic of software development
teams [5]. If software organizations are indeed becoming more
diverse, then we should let our students experience diversity and
its benefits, manage diversity and explore how it can be achieved.
Agile software development might be an appropriate teaching
framework for achieving these educational targets, since diversity
is derived from agile principles (e.g., customer collaboration) and
is expressed by agile practices (such as informative workspace,
pair programming and planning game). Further, the establishment
of diverse teams (see Reason no. 2) in educational programs in
general and in the teaching of agile software development in par-
ticular might be a good opportunity to highlight this message.
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing
it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to
value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value
the items on the left more.
Table 2. Manifesto for Agile Software Development

5. AGILE supports learning processes: It is well known that
software development is a complex challenge fromthe cognitive
perspective as well. For example, both customers and developers
should improve their understanding with respect to the developed
product throughout the entire software development process. In
other words, software development processes are, in fact, learning
processes that should be supported by the development environ-
ment. As it is explained in what follows, AGILE does support
learning processes. One mechanism that reflects this is the concept
of small releases, which means that the developed product is de-
livered in short iterations, at the end of each such iteration, the
customer and the developers have an opportunity to rethink what
has been developed, reflect back on what has been accomplished,
and proceed based on the lessons learned. Another practice of ag-
ile software development that supports learning processes is refac-
toring ([8]). Thus, AGILE might reduce part of the cognitive
complexity inherent in software development processes by making
the development environment more comprehensible to the develop-
ers, customers and other stakeholders. Clearly, software engineering
students should be exposed to such development environments.
6. AGILE improves habits of mind: A lot has been said about
the mental skills that software engineers, as well as software engi-
neering students, should possess in order to produce quality soft-
ware. Among them we can mention reflection ([7], [9], [11]),
abstraction skills ([10]) and program comprehension ([13]). Such
skills can be fostered very naturally by agile software development
in general, and in particular by activities such as stand-up meet-
ings, pair programming, and small releases, that are an integral
part of any agile software development environments.
7. AGILE emphasizes management skills: Many objections ex-
pressed against AGILE state that agility removes the responsibility
from the team leader. In practice, however, in agile development
environments, leadership is distributed among all team members,
or, in other words, all team members share the responsibility for
the developed product. Accordingly, if AGILE is taught at univer-
sity level, students may also gain some software management
skills.
8. AGILE enhances ethical norms: The Software Engineering
Code of Ethics and Professional Practice
(http://www.acm.org/serving/se/code.htm), formulated by an
ACM/IEEE-CS J oint Task Force, outlines how software develop-
ers should adhere to ethical behavior. The eight principles of the
Code of Ethics are presented in Table 3. As the following illustra-
tion demonstrates, agility supports ethical behavior. The second
principle of the Code states that "software engineers shall act in a
manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer,
consistent with the public interest." The correspondence of this
principle to the Agile Manifesto's concept of "Customer collabora-
tion over contract negotiation" (see Table 2) is transparent: they
both give priority to the customers' interest. Thus, teaching agility
becomes a perfect opportunity to address also the code of ethics of
software engineering.
1 PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act consistently with the
public interest.
2 CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall act in
a manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer,
consistent with the public interest.
3 PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that their prod-
ucts and related modifications meet the highest professional
standards possible.
4 J UDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain integrity and
independence in their professional judgment.
5 MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and lead-
ers shall subscribe to and promote an ethical approach to the
management of software development and maintenance.
6 PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance the integrity
and reputation of the profession consistent with the public inter-
est.
7 COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair to and sup-
portive of their colleagues.
8 SELF - Software engineers shall participate in lifelong learn-
ing regarding the practice of their profession and shall promote
an ethical approach to the practice of the profession.
Table 3. The Principles of the Software Engineering Code of
Ethics and Professional Practice

9. AGILE highlights a comprehensive image of software engi-
neering: The fact that the arguments presented so far relate to
different fields (such as cognition and management) reflects the
fact that agile software development paints a comprehensive pic-
ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Page 2 March 2007 Volume 32 Number 2
ture of software development processes, as well as highlights con-
nections between the elements and players participated in a typical
software development process. Thus, AGILE might serve also as
an opportunity to expose software engineering students to this
picture.
10. AGILE provides a single teachable framework: Software
engineering curricula are usually composed of different topics,
sometimes taught as isolated topics. Since in agile software devel-
opment the team concept is accepted and all developers are in-
volved in design, coding and testing activities, an agile
environment provides, in fact, a single all-inclusive teaching
framework for software engineering. Clearly, specific additional
courses should also be taken in order to deepen the students'
knowledge about the main topics of software development.
Epilogue
Convinced readers may ask themselves at this stage how the actual
teaching of agile software development should be carried out.
Since the purpose of this paper is to present our perspective about
why it is important to introduce agile software development into
software engineering programs in the academia, we do not elabo-
rate here about the actual teaching of AGILE. We will just men-
tion that in [4] we introduce a teaching framework that
encompasses all the ideas mentioned above. Within this frame-
work, which can be implemented within one semester period, one
version of a software product is developed in three iterations. In-
terested readers are welcome also to visit at our website
2
and to
contact us for further information and/or collaboration.
References
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2
Information about our work can be found in the following URL:
http://edu.technion.ac.il/Courses/cs_methods/eXtremeProgrammi
ng/XP_Technion.htm
treme Programming and Agile Processes in Software Engineering,
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ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Page 3 March 2007 Volume 32 Number 2