Agile Development in Education Sector

As we promised in our last interview that our focus will greatly depend upon how the Government of Pakistan is playing an active part in developing the Software Sector. Muhammad Hassan Khan, who is currently working as a lecturer at PUCIT, explains how the Agile development lab has greatly contributed in this repect.

With remarkable professional skills Muhammad Hassan Khan joined PUCIT in 2007. After completing his studies, he worked in a few software houses as a Software Engineer. These companies set the stage for his career. The desire to study further brought him back to the university thus abandoning his career in Industry. Giving it a new turn towards teaching.

With the growing insecurity in the world about Pakistan and its existence, he is one of those who are currently working very hard in order to maintain a positive image of Pakistan in front of the world. He, along with his colleagues, are making successful attempts in order to tell the world about the work which is being done in our country and its Education system.

“We were assigned a task where our main responsibility was to lead the development section.  With the help of other teachers such as Ms Fatima, who is currently working at Microsoft, Mr khawer and a few Students, the team created an application which could serve as a source of interactive portal between students and teachers. This allows teachers to keep a record of all their students. In almost one year and six months we developed this application and handed it over to PUCIT.

National ICT, provided us with funds for our development programs. Dr. Fakhar-ud-Din, at FAST, was the investigator. He gave this idea where PUCIT, FAST and VU could work in collaboration ON A PROJECT. The plan was eventually implemented and currently these three Universities are working on the new project which is known as Integration of Open Source Software in IT Education

This program is currently teaching the students about the tools and technologies of Open Source. Our main purpose is to teach, train and introduce them in a highly professional manner. So that they don’t face the same problems as we did.

Agile development lab is PUCITs inner Software house, working since 2001. Our Agile Lab wishes to show the world how work is being done in Pakistani Universities. Thus we are in contact with international communities outside Pakistan and assure them that yes Pakistan is working very hard in order to show the world that yes, talent exists here as well. The Internal projects which are currently being completed will be published for externals as well, and will hopefully go live at an international level. A lot of work has been completed. We started with a team of ten students. This team changes every year. And the students which were trained on the above projects have now joined reputable software houses at highly paid jobs only due to the hard work and the dedication they have shown. We are currently working on projects such as logicCampus, Joomla, Wikideki, Orange HRM and Open proj.

It is all a challenge for us every time we start working with a new team, we train the students and at the same time we developed a portal so that teachers can post everything. This is where teachers come, read and interact with their students.

The principal of PUCIT wishes to publish every work that is being done internally at a massive level.  So the world should know about the developments inside the country.

We train the student in these labs. We develop teams and they work on the above mentioned projects on campus.

They are taught everything about Software. We train them and teach them and in that process we, teachers, learn a lot. Then slowly and gradually they skillfully reach at the level where they are offered paid internships on campus. After classes they give us 3-4 hours

I had to face many difficulties in finding a suitable job, as there were no internships being offered; due to IT slump. At that time no such training was offered anywhere in the country. There was no such concept in market, thus me and my peers struggled. Students today are luckier. The professional training which they are currently receiving can do wonders for them as they enter professional life at this very stage.

Along with that a 60 million project has been approved by the government. A separate building is being constructed at our new campus. The plan is to invite software houses and setup their offices over there, thus providing students with greater job opportunities.

Thus it is my message to all the students on board that they should open up their minds. They should diversify themselves and should explore new areas. We often hear them complaining that we were not taught this and that. My request to them is, kindly do not wait for someone to come and teach you something. Make your inner self strong enough, so that you are able to learn and evaluate your work. ”

Interviewing Muhammad Hassan Khan was a learning experience for our team as well. We also met his students Muhammad Umer Riaz who is currently working on LogiCampus as a mentor and Shakeel Akmed and Neelam Shehzad who are working on wikideki as developers. While talking to them we came to know, as said by Sir Hassan, the students were actually learning something which could help them in their professional life. All of them provided us with a positive feedback and we were glad that we had a chance of meeting them. We hope that we get another chance of visiting PUCIT as its faculty members Muhammad Hassan Khan and Dr. Muhammad Murtaza Yousaf provided us with valuable information about their work and about the Software Industry in general.

Tagged as: IT, Joomla, LogiCampus, Open proj, Orange HRM, PUCIT, Wikideki