What We Learned from Past iPraktikum Projects

Introduction

If you’re about to join the iPraktikum course at TUM, you’ll be building real software for real clients. Previous student teams were in the same shoes and tried out sustainability methods like the Systemic Journey Map and Inclusive Segment Cards alongside agile development.

Here’s a look at what they found helpful, what was tricky, and what you can learn from their experiences.

What Students Found Valuable

• Raising awareness early

  The methods helped students realize that even small design choices can have social or ecological effects.

• Making impacts visible

  Visualizing environmental and social consequences gave structure to topics that usually stay hidden.

• Improving teamwork

  Thinking about accessibility and fairness together sparked useful discussions within the team and with clients.

👉 The big point: sustainability didn’t replace agile practices — it added fresh perspectives and made it easier to bring up important questions in meetings.

Challenges Students Faced

• Ecological thinking was harder

  Social topics (like inclusivity) were easier to imagine, but ecological impacts often felt abstract or limited to energy use.

• Turning insights into action

  Even when they saw impacts, many weren’t sure how to translate them into backlog items or code.

• Time pressure

  With deadlines and client deliverables, it was tempting to set sustainability aside in favor of immediate features.

👉 So don’t worry if you don’t “get it right” immediately — many teams struggled with the same things.

Lessons for You

Here are some takeaways from past teams that can help you in your own project:

• Turn insights into backlog items

  Write down sustainability considerations as user stories or requirements so they don’t get lost.

• Ask for concrete examples

  Look at cases of energy use, materials, or resource impacts in software — this makes ecological thinking less abstract.

• Reflect, don’t aim for perfection

  It’s more important to start the conversation than to deliver a perfect sustainability report.

👉 Even small steps can change how your team and client think about sustainability.

Conclusion

Previous iPraktikum students showed that you don’t just learn to code — you learn to think about the bigger picture.

Take the chance to experiment, bring in new perspectives, and see how your design choices might shape people and the planet in the long run.

References

1. Zielińska, M. (2025). Integrating Social and Ecological Sustainability in Software Product Development. Master’s Thesis, Technical University of Munich.