Abstract:

In order to prepare students for a professional IT career, most universities attempt to provide a current educational curriculum in the Project Management (PM) area to their students. This is usually based on the most promising methodologies used by the software industry. As instructors, we need to balance traditional methodologies focused on proven project planning and control processes and widely accepted methods and tools with the newer agile methodologies, which emphasize software delivery in a flexible and iterative manner with significant collaboration with product owners and customers. In our experience agile methodologies have witnessed an exponential growth in many diverse software organizations, and the various agile PM tools and techniques will continue to see an increase in adoption in the software development sector. Reflecting on these changes, there is a critical need to accommodate best practices and current methodologies in our courses that deliver Project Management content. In this paper we analyze two of the most widely used methodologies for traditional and agile software development – the widely used ISO/PMBOK standard provided by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the well-accepted Scrum framework and discuss how we can overcome curriculum challenges and deliver a quality undergraduate PM course for a Computer Science and Information systems curricula. Based on our teaching experience in Europe and North America, we present a comprehensive comparison of the two approaches. Our research covers the main concepts, processes, roles associated with the two PM frameworks, as well as recommended learning outcomes and assessment. The paper should be of value to instructors who are keen to see students graduate with a sound understanding of current PM methodologies and ability to deliver real-world products and projects.

Keywords:

Project management, Agile methods, Computer and Information Science Education, Information Systems education.