ISEDJ

Information Systems Education Journal

Volume 16

V16 N5 Pages 22-36

October 2018


Sprint, then Fly: Teaching Agile Methodologies with Paper Airplanes


Mark Frydenberg
Bentley University
Waltham, MA 02452, USA

David Yates
Bentley University
Waltham, MA 02452, USA

Julie Kukesh
Mendix, Inc.
Boston, MA 02210, USA


Abstract: As industry embraces the agile methodology for application development, universities are shifting their curricula to teach agile principles along with traditional waterfall concepts. This paper describes a simulation game offered to students in a first-year computing concepts course to introduce both models of application development. Students work in development teams to design, build, and test paper airplanes following both waterfall and agile principles to experience the players, processes, and challenges of each. Participants track their team’s progress throughout the activity, so they can draw conclusions about the benefits and challenges of each approach. Survey results indicate that students learned the various roles and approaches of both methods through this experience.

Keywords: Agile, app development, simulation games, waterfall

Download this article: ISEDJ - V16 N5 Page 22.pdf


Recommended Citation: Frydenberg, M., Yates, D., Kukesh, J. (2018). Sprint, then Fly: Teaching Agile Methodologies with Paper Airplanes . Information Systems Education Journal, 16(5) pp 22-36. http://isedj.org/2018-16/ ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of EDSIGCON 2017)