Title: Application of agile methods in industrial electronics education; lessons learned from a case study

Authors: Rooh ul Amin; Li Aijun; Irum Inayat

Addresses: School of Automation, Northwestren Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West Road, Beilin, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China ' School of Automation, Northwestren Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West Road, Beilin, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China ' Department of Software Engineering, University of Malaya, Jalan Universiti, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: This paper presents the introduction of agile methods to the study of industrial electronics education as performed at a public sector university in Pakistan. The application of agile methods i.e. scrum to the projects of industrial electronics course; industrial automation and process control proved to be an innovative and favourable alternative to the previously used traditional phase driven approaches. The emphasis of agile methods on iterative development, team collaboration, and quick feedback are the reasons which triggered the ease and favourability. The quick feedback and incremental development helped the students to improve and revisit their shortcomings and deliver within time. The cross functional teams enabled the students to deal with process management throughout the product development. The findings of the study state that the flexible yet time critical agile methods pledge benefits in meeting ever changing and evolving industry requirements.

Keywords: agile software development; industrial electronics; industrial automation and control; electronics education; case study; Pakistan; higher education; iterative development; team collaboration; feedback; process management; product development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.2015.072674

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 2015 Vol.25 No.3, pp.328 - 346

Received: 23 Jan 2015
Accepted: 03 Jul 2015
Published online: 23 Oct 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article