Agile Faculty: Practical Strategies for Managing Research, Service, and Teaching

by Rebecca Pope-Ruark

Digital tools have long been a transformative part of academia, enhancing the classroom and changing the way we teach. Yet there is a way that academia may be able to benefit more from the digital by adopting the project management techniques used by software developers.Agile work strategies are a staple of the software development world, developed out of the need to be flexible and responsive to fast-paced change at times when “business as usual” could not work. These techniques call for breaking projects into phases and short-term goals, managing assignments collectively, and tracking progress openly.Agile Faculty is a comprehensive roadmap for scholars who want to incorporate Agile practices into all aspects of their academic careers, be it research, service, or teaching. Rebecca Pope-Ruark covers the basic principles of Scrum, one of the most widely used models, and then through individual chapters shows how to apply that framework to everything from individual research to running faculty committees to overseeing student class work. Practical and forward-thinking, Agile Faculty will help readers not only manage their time and projects but also foster productivity, balance, and personal and professional growth.

Genres: Self Help, Academia, Nonfiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 27, 2017

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a smart, practical book. I already was familiar with Agile ideas, and I found her applications to faculty work really insightful. I was already thinking about their similarity to backwards course design when I got to her chapter on that. Using her template for describing big projects has been especially helpful, too: As a ____, I want to _____ in order to _____.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm excited to apply the principles of Agile/Kanban/Scrum that the author describes. I am in desperate need for a better way to organize my research agenda, along with my teaching and service duties. As a visual/kinesthetic learner/processor (to a fault), I hope that the physical process of creating a scrum/kanban board will boost my productivity or, at the very least, reduce some of my anxiety.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic work is essentially project management,  but for some reason we don’t take the best practices from the people who do that kind of work. This book is a bridge in the right direction.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read only the first 4 chapters as that was all that was of interest to me. The author does a good job of outlining the Agile philosophy and Scrum process, but nothing groundbreaking here that research PIs won't arrive at a version of organically. Possibly useful for folks brand new to project management, or someone requiring an external system/structure to help them get started.

Disappointingly, the application of the Agile framework from it's origins in software development specifically to the non-corporate culture of the academy is not really addressed. It seems the author was more interested in being "first" to publish on this topic than truly providing value to other faculty with well-constructed thoughts.

[Allen Gunderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across Agile Faculty from the https://www.agileineducation.org group. Even though the books focus is on college professors, it can be used by high school teachers such as myself. I recently went through a CSM course, which has been helpful in applying Scrum with my classes, but until reading Agile Faculty, I was without detailed education examples. Whether you are new to Agile or familiar with the practice, you’ll learn how to apply it in an educational context for mentoring, research, organization & course design, and student projects.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair - I skimmed a lot of this. I really like organizing, productivity, and managing books. This one was a little high level for me - I was hoping for more practical advice. Some good examples and covered many different faculty roles.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some good ideas for general organization. I plan to use some of the ideas with the semester-long project in my fall course to help students minimize conflict and keep their groups organized.