  In recent years, a vivid interest in hybrid development methods has been
observed as practitioners combine various approaches to software creation to
improve productivity, product quality, and adaptability of the process to react
to change. Scientific papers on the subject proliferate, however evaluation of
the effectiveness of hybrid methods in academic contexts has yet to follow. The
work presented investigates if introducing a hybrid approach for student
projects brings added value as compared to iterative and sequential
development. A controlled experiment was carried out among Bachelor students of
a French engineering school to assess the impacts of a given development method
on the success of student computing undertakings. Its three dimensions were
examined via a set of metrics: product quality, team productivity as well as
human factors (teamwork quality & learning outcomes). Several patterns were
observed, which can provide a starting point for educators and researchers
wishing to tailor or design a software development process for academic needs.
