Search Results

This chapter details how to create strong group projects that meet course goals. The chapter reviews research on effective collaboration and the relationship between collaboration and cooperation. Readers are asked to consider why they include group projects in their classes and how their existing assignments meet their course learning goals. Readers are encouraged to review course objectives and stories before they create team assignments to align the project with actual course learning goals. The next section provides instructions for creating an effective short collaborative project in one sprint, including aligning the project with learning goals for the course, writing an effective project prompt, and creating a loose project schedule. Next the chapter describes how to create longer multi-sprint group projects by creating multiple stories and assessment criteria for the project and developing a sprint schedule with incremental deliverables. Advice is offered for creating effective assignment sheets that contextualize the project and required collaborative element for he students. Advice is also offered for how to talk to students about effective collaboration and to introduce the Scrum framework. Finally the chapter discusses how instructors can play the roles of product owner and Scrum master for student teams.

This chapter outlines the complete Scrum framework for managing productivity, first by explaining the process in software development. When using Scrum in software development, professionals work in cross-functional teams. Each project has a backlog of features that users need and that must be built by the teams. Teams work with a product owner to build and keep the backlog up to date. Team work in sprints of two to four weeks and commit to completing a chosen number of backlog items during that time. During the sprint, the team meets every morning to a progress check meeting called Daily Scrum. At the end of the sprint, the team holds a review meeting open to all stakeholders to demonstrate the work accomplished. The team then meets privately in a retrospective meeting to assess their level of collaborative success and discuss how to work better together. Next, the chapter provides three examples of how the author has applied the Scrum framework to manage a scholarly research agenda, help a student organization run better committees, and scaffold project-based, upper-level professional writing courses.

This chapter explores how faculty stress can impede career success and the characteristics and mindsets essential to faculty vitality and professional growth. The chapter introduces Agile project management principles and the Scrum framework. Agile and Scrum evolved out of software development practices. Agile and Scrum practitioners value collaboration in cross-functional teams who have everything and everyone needed to consistently deliver small but complete increments of functional product that adds value for the users of that product. The Agile mindset and Scrum framework can be adapted to faculty career planning and faculty development. The Agile values of focus, commitment, openness, courage and respect match faculty values. Scrum can be used to set realistic and meaningful career goals and provides a flexible framework for accomplishing that work in research, service, and teaching. This chapter overviews the origins of Agile and Scrum and aligns Agile values and practices with faculty values and activities. Finally, the chapter outlines the content of the rest of the book and provides advice on how to approach reading the text.