Resources

Scrum – The Nuts and Bolts

In Agile Faculty, I review the history of the Agile mindset and the Scrum framework. For a quick overview of that history, read this post.

Are you wondering why a professor who teaches professional writing and rhetoric is talking about a project management practices from software development, this post covers why Scrum is not just for software developers.

Scrum boards are one of the easiest ways to dip your feet in to the Scrum process to manage your projects. Here’s an introductory post about Scrum boards, another about how you can modify your board to fit your planning style, and one more about how I vary my own office Scrum board.

Interested in a new way to articulate your personal and professional goals? I use the user story format from software development to set my own goals and to help students think about the course and academic career goals as well. Here’s a post about user stories and how use can create your own.

The Scrum framework includes four meetings that frame the sprint – planning, daily Scrum, review, and retrospective. Check out this post to learn why the retrospective meeting, a process review, is so valuable to faculty work.

Agile/Scrum Twitter and Book Favorites

I enjoy following and learning from several recognized experts in Agile and Scrum, especially those focusing on Agile in education. Check out my favorite Twitter accounts here.

If you are looking for some specific books on Scrum to extend your knowledge of the framework, check out some of my favorite texts. None are specifically focused on higher education or education more broadly, but they are all accessible and adaptable to education contexts.

While this list of favorites isn’t about Scrum or Agile, I’ve put together a list of my favorite higher ed-related and higher ed-adjacent podcasts. Great for workouts and long car rides.

Dr. rebecca pope-ruark on agile methodology

I joined Dr. Katie Linder of the Oregon State University E-Campus on their podcast Research in Action to talk about the relationship between Agile and Scrum, How to use backlogs and sprints, and the joy of a good Scrum board. There’s also a bonus clip about how to use Scrum boards with students during group projects.

Bonni Stachowiak invited me to chat about Agile Faculty and Scrum on episode 219 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. Listen to our wide-ranging conversation here.

Scrum Folder for Student Organization and SoTL Data Collection

In 2014, I shared some tips with the Center for Engaged Learning about how to turn a simple folder into a Scrum board which students can use to organize project work and that faculty can use as a source of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) data.