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Developing An Agile Project Management Course For Graduate Students

The Department of Engineering Leadership and Program Management at the [Institution] designed and implemented a new course to teach the fundamentals of Agile Project management. The revision was motivated by recommendations from a variety of sources to include input from industry, alumni and the departmental advisory board as well as professional publications. The consensus of faculty, students, alumni, industry and the advisory board was that (1) a solid foundation in Agile methodologies is important preparation for project management practice and (2) “solid foundation” means that graduates can select and execute appropriate Agile techniques to plan, execute and deliver quality results that frequently deliver value to customers. Previously our curriculum did not have an Agile methodologies course that provided our graduates with the solid foundation industry was looking for. In particular, our graduates were not prepared to develop user stories and story maps, estimate and plan for Sprints, track project execution and releases using burn-down charts or conduct a retrospective session. Graduate students who have completed program core project management courses that follow the “waterfall or predictive” methodology are encouraged to take this Agile course as a program elective. This course explores Agile-related practices, methodologies, Servant Leadership techniques and applications in development and operational project environments. Team projects are used to focus on developing the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes considered essential in effectively managing teams in adaptive project environments and integrating these practices with other project management methodologies.