Agile/Scrum in the Classroom

Background

One of the main challenges of incorporating design thinking into projects is helping students develop strategies to be more self-organizing and self-directed as most of their educational experience to date has been very structured, organized, and defined by the instructor and/or the curriculum. If we look to industry the leading strategies for creating a culture of innovation and self-starters we find that two leading methodologies are Agile and Scrum.

Adoption of principles of Agile and Scrum in the classroom empowers students to be in charge of their own learning, owning the standards that they are expected to master, and creates accountability through a combination of visible workflow charts and a culture of regular feedback and reflection. As a result the teacher is then freed from the shackles of the more traditional role of teaching to the standards and allows a shift into a role that is more accurately described as a mentor, coach, and facilitator.

Unfortunately Agile and Scrum are not a fixed set of tools that one can drop in front of its users and expect them to run with and be successful on the first try. More accurately Agile can be described as a set of development principles, a way of thinking about work and work flows and ultimately providing a better customer experience, while Scrum is more of a method for implementing Agile principles. With all of that said it's likely easier to describe the principles and methods that are suggested for adoption to help get you and your students started on the pathway towards implementing these best practices.

Quick Primer on Agile (link, 5-10 min read)

Agile Project Management 101: A Beginner’s Guide for Non-Project Managers (source)

This quick storyboard gives a concise overview of what Agile is and two of the most popular methods for implementing agile principles. Agile is not a thing to do but rather it is guidelines for remaining flexible, adaptive, and on-track while working towards a goal with frequent feedback from the end user(s) to avoid unnecessary dead ends and delays.

Agile methods we should work to incorporate

There are numerous strategies and methods for becoming agile but ultimately the success of the implementation requires commitment to a set of processes. Below are some of the processes that we believe would benefit students to prepare them for post-secondary options and their career.

Daily Stand-Ups/Scrums

Each class period during a project should start with a team meeting so that each team member can update the group on what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today, and any roadblocks to completion of tasks. If the instructor has them self-organize at the beginning of each period it should be time-boxed (limited) to approximately five minutes. Instructor can use this time to circulate between the groups as needed and to complete administrative tasks such as taking attendance. For visibility to the instructor at the end of the scrum meeting a member of the group might write their daily tasks on the whiteboard or input into the instructor’s cloud spreadsheet or update their online work board.

Kanban boards

Large projects should be broken down by students into well-defined tasks and/or user stories that can be prioritized and assigned to team members. These tasks should be organized and visible to all team members at all times. At a minimum these tasks should be divided into a To-Do/Doing/Done system with some method of identifying the team member responsible for ensuring that the task progresses to the Done column. It should be understood that tasks may be added, removed, or changed each day as the team redefines their project as it progresses. The work board can be electronic (Trello, etc.) and/or physical, such as a tri-panel board with sticky notes, depending on student preferences. The instructor should also have access to any online boards so that they can monitor progress as they see fit.

Cloud storage of all team materials accessible by all team members

All group members should store all electronic group materials using a resource approved for use by the school (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.) so that tasks are not roadblocked by a team member not being physically present with the media. This also allows for team resources to be accessed from home if necessary and for team members to review materials easily for approval to move work into the Done column.

Frequent reflection/retrospective at team and individual levels

We improve by making honest assessments of our work both as a team and as individuals. A portion of the assessment should be based on reflective pieces and interviews with students where by the end of the project the students should be able to identify what they have learned, where they have made improvements, and also where they still need to improve further. Students will regularly engage in self-assessment, peer assessment, group assessment, and teacher assessment using various formats.

Self-organizing, multi-disciplinary teams

Teams with diverse skills will be necessary to complete large projects in time to meet deadlines. Students will use self-assessment to determine their strengths and areas for opportunity. Teams with a range of skills can be assembled by the instructor or by other methods such as a team leader blindly choosing team members given only a set of each student’s self-assessed Top 3 Skills.

Breaking large projects into “sprints” by defining deadlines for specific deliverables

Large projects become much more approachable when broken down into smaller, defined deliverables. While the deliverable may vary depending on the student group approach to a problem the instructor should be able to work with each group to define a chunk of work that can be completed by the next benchmark/deadline and keep them on track for the final deadline.

Example sprints for a 4-week project

End of Week 1

Team should have project analysis/definition, a completed Kanban board and a working, crude prototype ready for a one minute demo

End of Week 2

Each student has completed a required two-day drafting unit. By Friday group should have: a 3D draft of their refined prototype, files ready for 3d printing, and a storyboard for their 30-second commercial

End of Week 3

Refined prototype should be completed and ready for further refinement if needed, all commercial video is recorded and ready for editing

End of Week 4

Prototype is ready for official demo/testing and students present their prototype and commercials

Feedback at multiple checkpoints during development

Instructor will act as scrum master and meet with the teams and individuals regularly to document progress and learning as well as leading teams to be critically aware of how to prioritize and reorganize tasks. If the product owner/end user is external to the classroom the group will meet with them at least once at a reasonable checkpoint to preview/demo their progress and solicit feedback to determine if they are on the right track.

Additional Resources

Videos

Intro to Scrum in Under 10 Minutes (YouTube video)
SCRUM: Twice the Work, Half the Time (YouTube video)

Reading

The Agile Classroom: Embracing an Agile Mindset In Education (medium.com)
The New New Product Development Game (Harvard Business Review)
The Beginner's Guide to Scrum and Agile Project Management (trello.com)
The Agile Classroom (edutopia.org)
Five Structures for Helping Students Learn Project Management (spencerauthor.com)
Agile Learning (Erin Hill)
Pulling Agile Into Education (digital periodical)

Materials

Agile Resource Sheets from AgileClassrooms.com (click the "Go to Link" button on the resource pop-up)

Starter Activities

Spaghetti Marshmallow Challenge (lesson plan, follow-up video, source)
Wake Up in the Morning Game (agilesparks.com)
Five Great Activities to Get Your Team Excited About Agile (medium.com)
Team Responsibility Game (tastycupcakes.org)
We're Having a Party! (tastycupcakes.org)

Additional Activities/Games

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