Strengthening Sustainability in Agile Education: Using Client-Sponsored Projects to Cultivate Agile Talents

Abstract

The success of agile in software development (SD) has sparked the application of agile in non-SD domains such as business management to improve operational efficiency and innovation. Despite the rising industry demands for agile talents in the non-SD domains, agile education falls short of client-sponsored projects, calling into question the sustainability of agile education. This study makes up for the gap and illustrates an eight-month endeavor where scrum practices and values were imbued in a client-sponsored project. The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data gathered throughout the eight-month project illustrates a large disparity among students in their scrum application, reveals top challenges faced by students in their scrum application, and suggests the impact of the scrum application on the quality of student work. The findings of the study set a solid foundation based on which future agile education could be enhanced to strengthen the sustainability of agile education to meet industries’ rising demands for agile talents in non-SD domains.