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Introduction to Scrum and how to use it in engineering education

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Conference

2019 ASEE PNW Section Conference

Location

Corvallis, Oregon

Publication Date

March 20, 2019

Start Date

March 20, 2019

End Date

March 22, 2019

DOI

10.18260/1-2--31884

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/31884

Paper Authors

biography

Branimir Pejcinovic Portland State University

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Branimir Pejcinovic received his Ph.D. degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a Professor and former Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education at Portland State University, Electrical and Computer Engineering department. In this role he has led department-wide changes in curriculum with emphasis on project- and lab-based instruction and learning. His research interests are in the areas of engineering education, semiconductor device characterization, design and simulation, signal integrity and THz sensors. He is a member of IEEE and ASEE.

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biography

Phillip Wong Portland State University

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Phillip Wong received an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990. Since then, he has been with Portland State University, Oregon, USA, where he is currently the ECE Lab Coordinator and an instructor.

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Robert B Bass III Portland State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-5644-4634

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Robert Bass, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Portland State University. His research focuses on electrical power systems, particularly distributed utility assets and the overlaying control and communications architectures that link them together. Dr. Bass specializes in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on electric power, electromechanical energy conversion, distributed energy resources, control theory and power systems analysis.

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Abstract

This is a workshop proposal. Scrum is a popular form of Agile project management. Its applications now include diverse areas such as software development, engineering, urban planning, and law. Scrum has also been used in software engineering educational programs, but its use in other engineering education is lagging. Within our electrical and computer engineering program, we introduced Scrum to help students improve their teamwork efficacy in projects and courses [1]. However, Scrum can be applied to all areas of engineering. Attendees of this workshop will first learn the basics of Scrum in general, followed by discussion and examples of how it can be applied to their engineering courses and overall program. We will also discuss ways to engage students in teamwork. Scrum methodology consists of (see www.scrumguides.org):

• Members: product owner, Scrum master, and development team • Events: sprint planning, daily stand-up, sprint review, and sprint retrospective • Artifacts: product and sprint backlog • Definitions and rules governing Scrum implementation

We cannot expect freshman or sophomore engineering students to have the sophistication necessary for full implementation of all of these in addition to teamwork. Furthermore, Scrum in educational environments is a teaching and learning tool, and it needs to be modified from its original design. How to address these issues will be discussed during the workshop as will all of the tools used in implementing Scrum. Attendees will work in teams to write drafts of basic Scrum artifacts. We hope that our experience and information provided will enable others to implement Scrum in their courses and programs.

Learning outcomes - participants will be able to:

• Explain the main components of Scrum • Learn the basics of Trello and CATME tools used in our implementation of Scrum • Design a project board on Trello, fill in the backlog and design the first sprint • Start using basic rubrics to evaluate Scrum and project management

Audience: instructors of undergraduate and graduate courses that have a significant term project component that requires use of project management. Duration: 2 hours Resources: laptop and Wi-Fi connection Other outcomes: potential collaboration on educational research project(s) related to Scrum application to project management.

[1] B. Pejcinovic, R. B. Bass, and P. Wong, “Assessing Scrum Project Management and Teamwork in Electrical and Computer Engineering Courses,” in 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018.

Pejcinovic, B., & Wong, P., & Bass, R. B. (2019, March), Introduction to Scrum and how to use it in engineering education Paper presented at 2019 ASEE PNW Section Conference, Corvallis, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--31884

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