Bruce Scharlau

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT BRUCE SCHARLAU

I now develop a cross-platform mobile app PCOS Buddy focusing on women\'s health around polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with a founder at Empowered Earth. I am applying all that I learned teaching software development and entrepreneurship in this role.I formerly engineered \'learn by doing\' experiences for people with lean, agile, & service design. I\'m especially interested in teaching students and other teams how to collaborate more effectively. I also coach individuals, & facilitate co-creative events. This experience led me to write a book:\'Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development\' so that I can help others learn from my experience. See link further below. This is also supported by more regular writing on the accompanying website and mail list at https://simplybegin.co.uk I was a senior lecturer in the Computer Science at the University of Aberdeen, where I taught students how to use agile, lean and service design approaches in their software development processes. Using these three approaches students can learn to co-create solutions with validated learning by bringing real people into the development process to clarify assumptions about their ideas. This blending of agile, lean startup and service design aspects in the software development work has proven popular and made for better applications. I used a variety of approaches to deliver interative sessions in the lecture and practical space of my teaching so that students are more likely to engage with the materials. I managed and organised the Aberdeen Software Factory where students build software for clients both as group projects, and also for paying clients to gain valuable work experience. I co-organised events based around computing and design at the university with my colleagues in Code The City, which focuses on using open data in civic apps for good. I also co-facilitate creative learning experiences. At the small-scale end my creative play-partner and I have hosted and facilitated playful experiences in the Maritime Museum and the Science Centre, as well as at conferences. At the larger end I have also facilitated a one-day open space for the Scrum Alliance in 2019 for over 700 people. I\'m also a co-organiser of Play4Agile, the annual unconference for playful agile coaches, scrum masters an others. Here participants use open space to organise discussions about possible agile games, and other topics.