Panel: eXtreme Programming: helpful or harmful?

Abstract

The concerns over the selection of the most effective methodology (or best practices) is also reflected in debates within the software engineering education circles. Here, the software engineering educators will have to decide which methodology is the right one for teaching the next generation of software engineers, or integrating into the software engineering education curricula. An excellent report [ 1 ] provides a brief review of several such methodologies as well as evaluative research and instructional issues related to agile methods and their potential impact. This panel provides two opposing views vis-hvis incorporating agile processes, and in particular eXtreme Programming, into software engineering education. The panel will be conducted slightly different from the traditional approaches. It will include normal paper presentations by the authors, followed by plenary debate. The first paper (authored by Lars Benedix, G/Sel Hedin, and Boris Magnusson) presents an experience from using eXtreme Programming to teach software engineering concepts in an undergraduate course with over 100 students. The authors' experience is very positive. The second paper (authored by Jean-Guy Schneider and Lorraine Johnston) conclude that introducing an agile process such as eXtreme Programming in software engineering education is not a straightforward task and the corresponding practices may run counter to educational goals. The paper presentations will serve as authors' position statements. Discussion and debate will follow.