Do Pipe Cleaners Help Software Engineers to Understand Agile Mindset?
Takako Tanaka, Shinobu Saito, Yoichi Kato · 2020
Agile practices are widely introduced to projects these days. However, merely using processes/tools in the practices does not necessarily result in “achieving agility”, especially for those who have been using a waterfall model. They tend to think that the waterfall model is the only way. This mindset is the main obstacle to make the introduction of agile practices successful. To derive a true value in using them, understanding the underlying mindset in the agile practices is essential. This report introduces a novel workshop-based learning course to understand the agile mindset. The course participants create pipe cleaner arts for experiencing pseudo software development in two different models: waterfall and agile. A questionnaire result from total 201 participants shows that they perceived a clear difference between the two models. About 87% of them answered that the experience is useful for their future development works.