Magdalena Mateescu

Teaching and learning agile collaboration

Agile methods are widely adopted in software development. They are based on agile principles that sharply contrast to traditional command-and-control management methods. Such methods emphasize the importance of highly interactive self-organizing teams and close collaboration of all stakeholders, as well as values like courage, openness and respect. However, recent studies show that graduates and undergraduates of computer science often lack the collaborative and communicative skills necessary for agile methods and, thus, are not yet well enough educated for agile development approaches. Therefore, new approaches or more adequate educational methods for teaching the necessary communication and collaboration skills need to be developed. In a recent interview study, the authors elicited specific collaboration and communication skills needed in agile teams. In this paper, we present results from this study and discuss teaching concepts for collaboration skills from both engineering and psychological points of view. We suggest an approach on how to integrate these concepts into university courses, that focuses on active learning of agile collaboration. We have started implementing the proposed concept in a software engineering course and report on the experiences we have made and on the challenges that we have encountered.

Smartphones as multimodal communication devices to facilitate clinical knowledge processes: randomized controlled trial.

Background Despite the widespread use and advancements of mobile technology that facilitate rich communication modes, there is little evidence demonstrating the value of smartphones for effective interclinician communication and knowledge processes. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the effects of different synchronous smartphone-based modes of communication, such as (1) speech only, (2) speech and images, and (3) speech, images, and image annotation (guided noticing) on the recall and transfer of visually and verbally represented medical knowledge. Methods The experiment was conducted from November 2011 to May 2012 at the University Hospital Basel (Switzerland) with 42 medical students in a master’s program. All participants analyzed a standardized case (a patient with a subcapital fracture of the fifth metacarpal bone) based on a radiological image, photographs of the hand, and textual descriptions, and were asked to consult a remote surgical specialist via a smartphone. Participants were randomly assigned to 3 experimental conditions/groups. In group 1, the specialist provided verbal explanations (speech only). In group 2, the specialist provided verbal explanations and displayed the radiological image and the photographs to the participants (speech and images). In group 3, the specialist provided verbal explanations, displayed the radiological image and the photographs, and annotated the radiological image by drawing structures/angle elements (speech, images, and image annotation). To assess knowledge recall, participants were asked to write brief summaries of the case (verbally represented knowledge) after the consultation and to re-analyze the diagnostic images (visually represented knowledge). To assess knowledge transfer, participants analyzed a similar case without specialist support. Results Data analysis by ANOVA found that participants in groups 2 and 3 (images used) evaluated the support provided by the specialist as significantly more positive than group 1, the speech-only group (group 1: mean 4.08, SD 0.90; group 2: mean 4.73, SD 0.59; group 3: mean 4.93, SD 0.25; F 2,39=6.76, P=.003; partial η2=0.26, 1–β=.90). However, significant positive effects on the recall and transfer of visually represented medical knowledge were only observed when the smartphone-based communication involved the combination of speech, images, and image annotation (group 3). There were no significant positive effects on the recall and transfer of visually represented knowledge between group 1 (speech only) and group 2 (speech and images). No significant differences were observed between the groups regarding verbally represented medical knowledge. Conclusions The results show (1) the value of annotation functions for digital and mobile technology for interclinician communication and medical informatics, and (2) the use of guided noticing (the integration of speech, images, and image annotation) leads to significantly improved knowledge gains for visually represented knowledge. This is particularly valuable in situations involving complex visual subject matters, typical in clinical practice.

Enhancing Agile Team Collaboration Through the Use of Large Digital Multi-touch Cardwalls

Agile software development has become mainstream, and with it many tools have been developed to support Agile software development. Nonetheless, studies show, that most Agile software teams still also use physical cardboards for their daily work. This is error prone and causes a lot of extra effort to keep both in sync. In our research project we conducted an interview study about the reasons for this media break. Based on the findings we developed visualization and interaction concepts for an Agile cardwall using an extra-large multi-touch wall display which provides Agile teams the lightweight collaboration workspace for their Agile meetings. We implemented the concepts in the software prototype aWall, and evaluated the usability of aWall in a user study. The evaluation indicates that aWall enables and encourages team work due to the large size of the wall, the easy accessibility and visibility of the needed information, and the integration with existing issue tracking tools. This suggests that augmenting digital cardwalls with large interactive touch technology and integration with task tracking systems is a useful way to support effective collaborative Agile software development processes.

Interactive Digital Cardwalls for Agile Software Development

Agile software development is characterized by very intensive communication and collaboration among members of the software development team and external stakeholders. In this context, we look specifically at cardwalls, noting that despite the wide availability of digital cardwalls, most Agile teams still use physical cardwalls to support their collaborative events. This is true even though a physical cardwall hinders efficient distributed software development and causes extra effort to capture story artefacts into digital tools to meet traceability and persistence requirements. We conducted two empirical studies in industry to understand the use of existing digital Agile cardwalls and to find out the needs for an ideal digital Agile cardwall. The first study was with eight Agile teams of committed digital cardwall users. The study showed the reasons why some teams use projected digital cardwalls and their detailed experiences with them. The study showed that most digital cardwalls seem not be sufficient for the highly interactive and collaborative Agile workstyle. The second study was with eleven Agile companies. The study comprised of the development of aWall, a software prototype of a large interactive high-resolution multi-touch display that supports varied Agile meetings where cardwalls are used. The results of the study emerged with design considerations for digital Agile cardwalls from the evaluation of aWall in a user workshop. Both studies, which were conducted concurrently, began with an interest in new large interactive surface technologies which might have the potential to provide not only the required interaction possibilities to support intensive collaboration, but also the required large display format necessary for a collaborative space. The results of the studies collectively seem to confirm our assumption, that large interactive surface technologies could bring the support for the collaboration of Agile teams to a new level, potentially making the teams more productive.

Interact! An Evidence-Based Framework For Digitally Supported School Field Trips

Interact! is an evidence-based framework for the support of school class visits to science exhibitions featuring a large vertical multi-touch surface and a set of tablet computers. The overall framework is designed to foster interest in computer sciences and collaborative learning of selected topics by drawing upon subject areas of personal importance and encouraging small group knowledge processes. Interact! was implemented as a prototype and tested in a field experiment with 53 pupils.