The virtual agile enterprise: Making the most of a software engineering course

Abstract

Software engineers are expected to possess a variety of technical, social and personal competencies to be well prepared for real world working environments. At the German University in Cairo (GUC), we were able to guide large groups of students into becoming self managing and self learning communities whose members work together as a team to build large scale software. The students were able to experience many of the challenges in software engineering and develop a variety of related skills in a short period of time. This report describes our detailed experience in reaching such results using agile development practices in a simulated enterprise environment. With an aim to enable educators realise the same success, this report serves as a guide for educators who wish to replicate the process. The resulting successes and the concerns from this unique experience are discussed along with future recommendations.