athens

ATHENS (Advanced Technology Higher Education Network Socrates) is a network of 24 european universities providing its students twice a year with the opportunity to take part in one-week courses on various topics at the member institutions. The ATHENS program enables students as well as ph.d. candidates to earn credits with an uncomplicated short stay abroad, but they can also enjoy an international atmosphere at the courses of their home university.

Visual Analytics – an agile software development project

For the ATHENS week in Munich we offer a small agile software development project. Experience a one week software development sprint for data driven visualizations with particular emphasis on agile methods. Additionally, acquire the soft skills, that are needed for successful organization of a small group project and international team work.

More information about the ATHENS week in Munich is provided on the International Office website.

Objectives

Students work on software projects in 3-4 person teams. Teams design, implement and test their contribution to a software system based on determining the needs of future users. Main focus are agile development processes and process models such as Scrum, Test Driven Development and Extreme Programming with special attention to the field of Visual Analytics.

As a result, students gain a first-hand experience of an agile software development project, typical problems arising in daily routine, the importance of effective knowledge management and efficient software development practices.

Prerequisites

• Either good knowledge of interactive visualization prototypes using frameworks such as d3js.org or similar.
  
• Or a good level of knowledge of databases and SQL.
• Participants must bring a laptop with their favorite programming environment/frameworks installed. Do not forget to bring the necessary adaptors in order to connect your device with ethernet rj45 cables and vga cables.

Course exam

• Giving a short talk on assigned topic during the course week, that needs to be prepared beforehand

• Documentation (keyword knowledge management) regardin design, project planning and implementation during the course week

• Demo/Presentation of completed small group project (working application) at the end of the course week