Who/when: This assignment is completed by all teams, at the end of the semester.
Genre: oral presentation, oral debate.
Audience: University and community software engineering community.
Purpose: Broaden awareness of Scrum; debate open issues in the Scrum approach.
Communication skills: reading, writing, speaking, teaming

Now that you have had (at least) a semester of Scrum, you are in a position to tell others about it, and to take positions on open issues in Scrum. We will have a public forum on Scrum that will allow you to share your new knowledge.

Outcomes. In this assignment you will get experience in the following skills:

1. preparing and delivering an oral narrative of your project, for a new audience;
2. researching open questions in the Scrum methodology;
3. engaging in written and oral debate on these open questions.

Part 1. Time: 60 minutes

As a team, prepare a 5-minute presentation that covers three topics: your project context and goals; your approach to Scrum; and a brief history of your project. You may want to use material from your "how we scrum" document. Using the "wave" perspective of the particle/wave/field heuristic, describe the project as a process unfolding over time. Visual aids are recommended.

Part 2. Time: 60 minutes

There is plenty of room within the Scrum community for disagreement and debate. Look online to find some of the open questions: e.g. the (dis)advantages of Scrum compared to other methods; the compatibility of Scrum with particular software engineering practices; good/bad habits in Scrum. Be sure to choose a topic for which there are multiple legitimate arguments, so that the debate is interesting. Give a link to the source from which you have drawn your question.

Part 3. Time: 15 minutes

As a team, look over the questions you've completed and choose one to submit to the forum. Post your questions to the wiki, and indicate which is to be submitted to the forum.

Part 4. Time: 60 minutes

As a team, prepare answers to all of the questions submitted to the forum. In preparation, looks at online forums and summarize the arguments you find there, from multiple sides. Then drawing from your experience with your project, indicate which answer you favor, and explain how your experiences have led you to that position. Post a written version of your arguments to the wiki.

Part 5. Time: 60 minutes

At the forum, each team will give its 5-minute presentation. Then there will be a discussion among our panel of experts (you), on the questions you have submitted. Each team member is expected to articulate and defend at least one answer.

Grading criteria

1. Was your oral presentation concise, staying within the given time bounds?
2. Was your oral presentation complete, covering your project context and goals, your approach to Scrum, and a brief history of your project?
3. Was your oral presentation appropriate to a general audience, with care taken to explain unfamiliar concepts?
4. Did you perform a thorough literature search for forum questions, looking at a variety of sources?
5. Do your questions for the forum cover a broad variety of topics?
6. Are your questions appropriate for a debate, arguable from multiple positions?
7. Are your questions suitable for a debate, with legitimate answers from multiple positions?
8. In the forum, did you articulate your own position clearly?
9. During the forum, did you present pertinent comments and questions to the other panelists?

Grading rubric