Agile, DevOps, and Software Quality for Engineering Educators Training Course

Foundations of Agile Thinking for Government

• The Agile Manifesto and its relevance beyond software development in government operations
• Comparing agile methodologies with traditional waterfall and plan-driven models in public sector projects
• Mapping Scrum roles, events, and artifacts to academic project cycles for government research and teaching teams
• Kanban and flow-based management techniques for enhancing efficiency in research and educational initiatives for government
• Selecting agile hybrid approaches suitable for engineering and design environments within governmental agencies

Agile Planning and Collaboration for Government

• Writing user stories and defining acceptance criteria for engineering problems in public sector projects
• Backlog prioritization techniques: MoSCoW, value vs. effort, and risk-driven ordering for government initiatives
• Sprint planning and estimation methods tailored for non-software teams in government agencies
• Conducting retrospectives and fostering continuous improvement in an academic setting for government research
• Utilizing collaboration tools and boards to support multi-disciplinary participants in government projects

Introduction to DevOps Culture for Government

• Defining DevOps: breaking silos between development and operations in government IT environments
• The CALMS model: Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, Sharing, applied to government processes
• Implementing DevOps principles in research labs, civil engineering teams, and architecture studios for government agencies
• Building a blameless culture and feedback loops in educational institutions supported by government funding
• Ethics, security, and compliance considerations in academic DevOps adoption within government-funded projects

Version Control and Collaborative Code Management for Government

• Fundamentals of Git for ensuring reproducibility in engineering and design work for government projects
• Branching strategies: trunk-based, feature branches, and simplified GitFlow for government teams
• Pull requests, peer review, and code ownership practices in teaching teams within government-funded programs
• Managing non-code assets such as CAD files, BIM models, and simulation datasets for government projects
• Organizing repositories for course materials and student projects in government educational initiatives

Continuous Integration and Build Automation for Government

• Concepts of continuous integration (CI) and their application to compiled and scripted engineering tools in government projects
• Setting up automated builds for software, simulations, and documentation in government environments
• Pipeline stages: compile, package, lint, and pre-flight checks for government initiatives
• Overview of popular CI platforms suitable for government use: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins
• Handling large artifacts, dependency caching, and parallel execution in government projects

Software Quality and Static Analysis for Government

• Defining software quality metrics such as maintainability, reliability, usability, and efficiency for government applications
• Code metrics: cyclomatic complexity, coupling, cohesion, and duplication in government codebases
• Static analysis tools for Python, Java, C++, and common engineering scripts used in government projects
• Documentation practices as a quality measure: docstrings, README standards, and living documentation for government software
• Integrating quality gates into CI pipelines without impeding student progress in government-funded educational programs

Testing Strategies and Test Design for Government

• The testing pyramid: unit, integration, system, and acceptance testing for government applications
• Writing unit tests for engineering calculations, simulations, and utilities in government projects
• Fundamentals of test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD) in government software development
• Mocking external systems such as sensors, APIs, and finite-element solvers in government research
• Structuring test suites for multi-disciplinary team projects in government agencies

Test Automation and Continuous Testing for Government

• Automating test execution within CI/CD pipelines for government applications
• Test reporting, coverage thresholds, and management of flaky tests in government software development
• Property-based testing and fuzzing techniques for engineering algorithms in government projects
• Regression testing strategies for evolving course assignments in government-funded educational programs
• Performance and load testing for simulation and rendering workloads in government research

Continuous Delivery and Deployment Concepts for Government

• Fundamentals of continuous delivery (CD): delivery vs. deployment, environments, and promotion in government IT projects
• Deployment patterns: blue-green, canary, and feature toggles for government applications
• Applying CD principles to publish research artifacts, course sites, and applications in government settings
• Container basics with Docker for ensuring reproducibility in government engineering environments
• Introduction to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for managing lab and cloud setups declaratively in government projects

Observability, Monitoring, and Feedback for Government

• Logging, metrics, and tracing practices for academic software and simulations in government research
• Setting up lightweight monitoring systems for student projects and research tools in government-funded programs
• Using feedback data to iterate on teaching materials and lab assignments in government educational initiatives
• Dashboards and alerting mechanisms appropriate for educational contexts in government settings
• Post-deployment verification and rollback procedures for government applications

Security and Quality Best Practices for Government

• Secure coding fundamentals: input validation, authentication, and secrets management in government software development
• Dependency scanning and vulnerability management in open-source stacks used by government agencies
• License compliance for software utilized in teaching and publication within government-funded programs
• Data privacy considerations when handling student and research data in government projects
• Building a security-aware culture in engineering and design programs supported by government funding

Translating Practices into Teaching Modules for Government

• Designing agile project assignments for systems, civil, design, and architecture students in government-funded educational programs
• Creating rubrics that assess process quality alongside product quality in government courses
• Setting up template repositories with pre-configured CI for student use in government-funded projects
• Scaffolding DevOps concepts progressively across a semester in government educational settings
• Evaluating student teams using real-world quality and automation metrics in government-funded initiatives

Toolchain Selection and Academic Constraints for Government

• Evaluating free and open-source tools for budget-conscious government departments
• Integrating with existing learning management systems (LMS), file storage, and lab infrastructure in government educational programs
• Managing technical debt in long-running research codebases within government projects
• Onboarding students and faculty with varying technical backgrounds in government-funded initiatives
• Maintaining sustainability when key contributors graduate or rotate out of government projects