Combining Agile Software Development and Service-learning

Abstract

Experiential learning is ever-more popular with educators, industry, and with students themselves. Finding and delivering appropriate applied use cases can be challenging though, as on one hand industry partners may not willing to give insights to non-employees into their systems for creating truly meaningful case studies, and on the other hand the appropriate balance between instruction and application is ill-defined. Service learning projects are one solution for filling in the applied project gap. This case study takes place in the nexus between blended classrooms, applied software development, and service learning. Junior and senior level students partnered with a community actor to develop deployable software applying the Agile methodology. The service-learning project enabled students to engage in a full-cycle development project, from requirements gathering to hypercare. However, significant trade-offs in structure and classroom management must be made when the focus of the class is a full implementation. Blended technologies and course delivery were found to aid delivery and project management in a seamless manner. Drawing on feedback from stakeholders and students, this experience report makes a series of recommendations for implementing applied software development. Our contribution is the introduction and assessment of a method to marry (online) information systems education with service learning.