Learning Global Agile Software Engineering Using Same-Site and Cross-Site Teams

We describe an experience in teaching global software engineering (GSE) using distributed Scrum augmented with industrial best practices. Our unique instructional technique had students work in both same-site and cross-site teams to contrast the two modes of working. The course was a collaboration between Aalto University, Finland and University of Victoria, Canada. Fifteen Canadian and eight Finnish students worked on a single large project, divided into four teams, working on interdependent user stories as negotiated with the industrial product owner located in Finland. Half way through the course, we changed the teams so each student worked in both a local and a distributed team. We studied student learning using a mixed-method approach including 14 post-course interviews, pre-course and Sprint questionnaires, observations, meeting recordings, and repository data from git and Flow dock, the primary communication tool. Our results show no significant differences between working in distributed vs. Non-distributed teams, suggesting that Scrum helps alleviate many GSE problems. Our post-course interviews and survey data allows us to explain this effect, we found that students over time learned to better self-select tasks with less inter-team dependencies, to communicate more, and to work better in teams.