Teaching Agile in an Agile Way: A Case from the First Iteration in a University

In parallel with the increasing demands for Agile in industry and academia, many lecturers have started teaching Agile Software Development in varying programs. As one of them, in this study, we exhibit our selective course experience at Sakarya University in Turkey with forty-eight final-year Information Systems Engineering undergraduate students using Agile and Lean practices. In this study, we provide a course design, the reasoning behind it, the students’ and lecturer’s experiences, and observations on learning the Agile practices. In particular, we focus on the constraints faced by both the students and lecturer, adaptations made in the course, and the projects during the teaching period. We also present the lessons learned, results of the surveys and interviews performed with the students, and evaluation of these inputs by considering academic literature. Finally, we present recommendations for educators interested in Agile for a higher education course and the lecturers who would give the course at the same university in the upcoming semesters.