Abstract:

The past decade is characterized by a serious distinction between agile and traditional software development processes. Agile processes and their development concepts are increasingly represented in practice. They are also increasingly used in developing highly complex projects, although they were initially intended for developing less complex projects. Such application implies various dilemmas, especially in the domain of architectural issues, which have become the focus of current research. The scientific community deems that the opposing software architecture development processes (traditional vs. agile) play complementary roles in software development, with the possibility of their coexistence and integration. Agile processes provide organizations with efficiency, quality and flexibility in accepting changes, but it is also important for the development of complex software to use explicit architectural practices.

The research subject in the paper is identifying the representation of agile development contents in the study programmes of undergraduate studies at higher education institutions in the areas of Computer Science, Software Engineering and Business Informatics. Contents related to software architecture development were especially analyzed in the study programmes. By interviewing 20 agile processes and software architecture development experts, the authors additionally reached conclusions showing that the respondents also see the key problem in inadequate contents and competencies of study programmes in comparison with market needs. In other words, the existing programmes insufficiently study the knowledge and skills in the domain of agile processes and software architecture development.

The result of the work is a proposal for innovated contents of study programmes with a detailed description of individual courses related to agile processes and software architecture development. This approach creates the basis for reducing the gap between academia and software industry, and adequate profiling of students in relations to required market competencies.

Keywords:

Agile process, curriculum development, software architecture, course, competencies.