CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR TRAINING FUTURE IT PROFESSIONALS BASED ON AGILE METHODOLOGY

Abstract

This article substantiates the relevance of developing a conceptual model for training future IT professionals in higher education institutions under conditions of rapid technological change, an increasing labour-market demand for practice-oriented competencies, and the growing importance of sustainable development goals related to quality education, innovation, and productive employment. The problem is intensified by the fact that national standards and programme structures often change more slowly than industry practices, which creates a gap between declared learning outcomes and the realities of team-based software development. It is shown that recent studies on implementing Agile methodology in the educational process predominantly describe local practices of applying Scrum or EduScrum within individual courses or learning modules, focusing on teamwork, iterative learning, reflection, and regular feedback. At the same time, competency-based approaches to designing IT professional training mainly address the level of educational programmes and intended learning outcomes, but do not always provide a clear process mechanism for managing continuous updating of programme content and learning activities.
As a result of the study, a framework structure of an Agile-oriented conceptual model is proposed, comprising four interrelated blocks: goal-and-outcome, organisational-and-content, technological-and-process, and criteria-and-assessment. The goal-and-outcome block formulates strategic orientations and expected results of training by aligning societal demands and industry needs with programme learning outcomes. The organisational-and-content block represents curriculum structuring at the programme level, including the logic of selecting and integrating content and project components, as well as principles of programme relevance maintenance. The technological-and-process block defines Agile as a process framework for organising learning through iterativity, incremental progress, collaboration, and adaptation, and emphasises educational artefacts as evidence of students’ learning and professional activity. The criteria-and-assessment block outlines the verification of results and supports a feedback loop for improving both the programme and the content of educational components. Pedagogical conditions are defined as a cross-cutting factor that ensures the feasibility of implementing the model within a specific educational-professional programme context.
The article clarifies the functional role of each block and the logic of their interconnections: target orientations and expected outcomes are aligned with content and the organisation of learning; Agile provides the process logic of iterativity and adaptation; and assessment supports evidence-based verification and programme improvement through feedback and corrective actions. The practical value of the findings lies in the possibility of using the proposed model as a methodological basis for designing and updating educational-professional programmes across different higher education institutions, maintaining compliance with standards while enhancing training flexibility in response to changes in the industrial environment.