Optimizing team formation for teaching and exercising scrum : a case study from LUT University’s capstone project for software and systems engineering course

Abstract

This thesis looks into how student teams were formed in the 2023 Capstone Project for Software and Systems Engineering at LUT University. The course was based on the Scrum framework and gave students practical experience with agile methods by working on real-life projects. The research is done using student survey answers and the writer’s own experience during the course. The results and observation show that the current self-selection method gives students a lot of freedom, but also brings some problems. These include choosing teammates based on who they already know, not balanced skills in the team, and different personal working preferences. Some team dynamics issues not directly related to team formation aspects are also presented. To improve the current team formation system, the thesis suggests using a short questionnaire about personality and working styles, so students can understand each other better. The teaching staff is also advised to take proactive actions to ensure teams are properly selected. When it comes to related findings, this paper also gives some other suggestions to help teams work better together, like running onboarding workshops, asking teams to submit their agreements earlier, and using Agile Coach support more. These ideas were not tested but come from common things students said and the writer’s own experience. In the end, the study states that Scrum is a useful learning method, but how teams are formed is very important. A more guided and organised team forming process could help students have better teamwork and less early problems in project-based courses.