Introducing lean and agile methodologies into engineering higher education: The cases of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Estonia

Abstract

Lean and Agile methodologies are currently two of the most popular trends in production and software engineering. They have been widely adopted in industry to reduce production costs, improve product quality and team efficiency, provide continuous value to the client, etc. Nowadays, it is desirable if not required that any graduate have a good knowledge of these methodologies in order to be truly prepared for the real work market. Nevertheless, it is not clear if these practices have already been adopted in engineering higher education. In this regard, the LEAP project is aimed at supporting the teaching and learning of these methodologies by developing a suitable educational program and good supporting materials, particularly game-based resources. As a first step towards this goal, a study of the current situation related to the adoption of lean and agile methodologies in higher education in four European countries have been carried out: Greece, Portugal, Spain and Estonia. The study focused on two main parts: (i) national policies, practices and strategies to link learning processes to industrial practices; and (ii) current practices for exposing students to Lean and Agile industry practices using ICT. This paper shows the main findings of the study and introduce the basement towards the development of the LEAP project. © 2018 IEEE.