Virtual Scrum: A teaching aid to introduce undergraduate software engineering students to scrum

Abstract

ABSTRACTTeaching agile practices is becoming a priority in Software engineering curricula as a result of the increasing use of agile methods (AMs) such as Scrum in the software industry. Limitations in time, scope, and facilities within academic contexts hinder students' hands‐on experience in the use of professional AMs. To enhance students' exposure to Scrum, we have developed Virtual Scrum, an educational virtual world that simulates a Scrum‐based team room through virtual elements such as blackboards, a Web browser, document viewers, charts, and a calendar. A preliminary version of Virtual Scrum was tested with a group of 45 students running a capstone project with and without Virtual Scrum support. Students' feedback showed that Virtual Scrum is a viable and effective tool to implement the different elements in a Scrum team room and to perform activities throughout the Scrum process. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 999: XX–XX, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21588 © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:147–156, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21588