Development of engineering students’ adaptive performance using agile methods: The case of Drees & Sommer SE

Gabi Kaffka studied sociology at the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in entrepreneurship studies from the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Currently, she holds a position as assistant professor at the Tilburg School of Economics & Management, Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Her work focuses on social cognitive aspects of innovative and entrepreneurial professional teams and individuals. In the past, dr. Kaffka carried out postdoctoral research for the Strategic Alliance EWUU in the Netherlands. In 2020, her research won the prize for Best Empirical Paper at the Annual Academy of Management Conference (Entrepreneurship Division). 

She has also been affiliated to the HEInnovate project (European Commission and OECD) where she reported on best practices in entrepreneurial teaching and learning in higher education in Ireland and the Netherlands; and she has led an EU consortium on the design of the EPIC toolkit (https://heinnovate.eu/en/other-initiatives) which facilitates assessment of entrepreneurial and innovative competences of individuals. 

Jan Onne Backhaus studied civil engineering before moving into the Hamburg aircraft construction industry, where he les R&D projects as a structural engineer. His last role in the sector was Director Offshore. Driven by academic interests, he pursued an Executive MBA at the School of Economics and Management (FOM), completing the programme in 2017. During this time, he also began his doctoral research at the Technical University of Hamburg and started consulting companies on intercultural communication and project management.

Today, Dr. Backhaus is with the consulting and project management firm Drees & Sommer, where he supports companies in the construction industry with lean construction management and process optimization. He leads a geographically distributed team operating across Hamburg, Berlin, and Hannover. He is the author of two books and several publications on digitalisation and lean methodologies in the construction sector. He regularly speaks at conferences on lean and agile topics and serves as one of the editors of the Lean Construction Blog.