Purdue University - The International Team Experience

Recently, Ativio partnered with Purdue University to run a class teaching students how to engage in international development teams.  To fully immerse the students, we setup the team structure to involve Purdue Students and students from other countries.

The program was a huge success for all involved.  The students learned several tricks of the trade and how to overcome obstacles that we face in the international team world.  We not only covered the software development life cycle (SDLC), but we let the students figure out the obstacles involved with each stage of the lifecycle themselves in order to facilitate a more hands-on approach to learning.  Some students thought the hardest part of the course was going to be the development of the product itself; however, students quickly learned the most difficult part of the course was learning to effectively communicate with each other.  A simple assignment, which students could do by themselves, can prove more complex for an international team.  The difference is experience.  We have now given our team the valuable international experience they will need to succeed in future international business endeavors.

These students are the future workforce; they now have the experience to save companies thousands of dollars with their training.  The minor obstacles these students learned to overcome could turn into re-work, or may help save time for businesses inexperienced in international team development.

This program could not have been a success without the Universities.

I want to personally thank the participating Universities for seeing the value in and taking a chance with this program.  I am thrilled we will be working together more in the future through this partnership.

Buster Dunsmore from Purdue University was a great help in this program.  Professor Dunsmore immediately saw the need and value in a course such as ours. Thank you, Professor Dunsmore.

Ananth Ram of Botho College in Botswana.  Ananth saw the value this course would bring to his students and their future, and he was willing to add this course to the training program in the College.  The students trained through this course will now be part of a mentoring program in the college.  I am very glad this program worked out so well for your college and the students.  I thank you and look forward to working together for many years to come.

The Principle and Head of the Department at Silver Oak College in Ahmedabad, India.  You saw the need and the students desire. Thank you for acting on it.  We here at Ativio are driven for results and we are glad to have you as part of this program

The Last Step:  Presentation Time

Our class was structured to teach the students so they would be more marketable in the business world. The obvious final step would be to provide a platform for the students to show off in front of businesses.  The students had 2 weeks to prepare their sites and themselves for presentations. The students used all the skills they had learned in the previous 10 weeks while working on their projects to come together and form their final international presentations.  Each team presented in front of a global audience.  We had members from India, Botswana, and the U.S. watching as the students presented their end products. See the final presentation (Please forgive me.  I didn't hit record until about 5 minutes in.  The only thing you missed was Nikhil and I introducing ourselves.)

Final Thoughts

This program does more than teach the students how to work as developers, quality assurance members, coordinators, or any other role within the development cycle.  This program allowed the students to meet other individuals from other countries.  This program allowed the students to learn other cultures and how to come to an international group consensus when all team members were of equal rank.  While a professional may find some errors in the websites, or broken links, the goal of the program was met by all of the team members.  They quickly came together as an international group, organized and completed a project within a period of time. All along the way, students identified obstacles and overcame them in order to meet the final presentation deadline.