Agile Definitions.Glossary Flashcards
Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
A method of collaboratively creating acceptance test criteria that are used to create acceptance tests before delivery begins. Moves the testing focus to the business requirements
Agile Life Cycle
An approach that is both iterative and incremental to refine work items and deliver frequently.
Agile Practitioner
A person embracing the agile mindset who collaborates with like-minded colleagues in cross-functional teams. Also referred to as agilist.
Agile Unified Process
A simplistic and understandable approach to developing business application software using agile techniques and concepts. It is a simplified version of the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
Anti-Pattern
A known, flawed pattern of work that is not advisable.
Automated Code Quality Analysis
The scripted testing of codebase for bugs and vulnerabilities
Backlog Refinement
The progressive elaboration of project requirements and/or the ongoing activity in which the team collaboratively reviews, updates, and writes requirements to satisfy the need of the customer request.
Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
A system design and validation practice that uses test- first principles and English-like scripts.
Blended Agile
Two or more agile frameworks, methods, elements, or practices used together such as Scrum practiced in combination with XP and Kanban Method.
Broken Comb
Refers to a person with various depths of specialization in multiple skills required by the team. Also known as Paint Drip. See also T-shaped and I-shaped
Burndown Chart
A graphical representation of the work remaining versus the time left in a timebox,
Burnup Chart
A graphical representation of the work completed toward the release of a product.
Business Requirement Documents (BRD)
Listing of all requirements for a specific project.
Cadence
A rhythm of execution. See also Timebox
Collective Code Ownership
project acceleration and collaboration technique whereby any team member is authorized to modify any project work product or deliverable, thus emphasizing team-wide ownership and accountability
Continuous Delivery
The practice of delivering feature increments immediately to customers, often through the use of small batches of work and automation technology
Continuous Integration
A practice in which each team member’s work products are frequently integrated and validated with one another
Cross-Functional Team
A team that includes practitioners with all the skills necessary to deliver valuable product increments
Crystal Family of Methodologies
A collection of lightweight agile software development methods focused on adaptability to a particular circumstance. Is based on the team size for the different crystal colors / methodology
Clear - for teams of 8 or fewer people.
Yellow - for teams of 10-20 people.
Orange - for teams of 20-50 people.
Red - for teams of 50-100 people
Daily Scrum
A brief, daily collaboration meeting in which the team reviews progress from the previous day, declares intentions for the current day, and highlights any obstacles encountered or anticipated. Also known as daily standup
Definition of Done (DoD)
team’s checklist of all the criteria required to be met so that a deliverable can be considered ready for customer use
Definition of Ready (DoR)
A team’s checklist for a user-centric requirement that has all the information the team needs to be able to begin working on it.
DevOps
A collection of practices for creating a smooth flow of delivery by improving collaboration between development and operations staff
Disciplined Agile (DA)
is a process decision framework that puts individuals first and offers only lightweight guidance around incremental and iterative solution delivery according to the unique needs of each specific project. As a people-first agile framework, DA is in some ways similar to the Crystal method. In fact, DA is designed to be a hybrid approach combining elements of XP, Scrum, Kanban, and other methodologies.
Double Loop Learning
A process that challenges underlying values and assumptions in order to better elaborate root causes and devise improved countermeasures rather than focusing only on symptoms.
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM).
focuses on the full project lifecycle, DSDM (formally known as Dynamic System Development Method) was created in 1994, after project managers using RAD (Rapid Application Development) sought more governance and discipline to this new iterative way of working.
DSDM’s success is due to the philosophy “that any project must be aligned to clearly defined strategic goals and focus upon early delivery of real benefits to the business.”
known best because of its emphasis on constraint-driven delivery
Evolutionary Value Delivery (EVO)
Openly credited as the first agile method that contains a specific component no other methods have: the focus on delivering multiple measurable value requirements to stakeholders
eXtreme Programming
An agile software development method that leads to higher quality software, a greater responsiveness to changing customer requirements, and more frequent releases in shorter cycles.
Feature-Driven Development
A lightweight agile software development method driven from the perspective of features valued by clients
Fit for Purpose
A product that is suitable for its intended purpose
Fit for Use
A product that is usable in its current form to achieve its intended purpose
Flow Master.
The coach for a team and service request manager working in a continuous flow or Kanban context. Equivalent to Scrum Master
Framework
A basic system or structure of ideas or facts that support an approach
Functional Requirement
A specific behavior that a product or service should perform
Functional Specification
A specific function that a system or application is required to perform. Typically represented in a functional specifications document
Hoshin Kanri.
strategy or policy deployment method
IDEAL.
An organizational improvement model that is named for the five phases it describes: initiating, diagnosing, establishing, acting, and learning
Impact Mapping.
A strategic planning technique that acts as a roadmap to the organization while building new products.
Impediment.
An obstacle that prevents the team from achieving its objectives. Also known as a blocker.
Increment.
A functional, tested, and accepted deliverable that is a subset of the overall project outcome.
Incremental Life Cycle
An approach that provides finished deliverables that the customer may be able to use immediately.
Information Radiator
A visible, physical display that provides information to the rest of the organization enabling up-to-the-minute knowledge sharing without having to disturb the team
I-shaped.
Refers to a person with a single deep area of specialization and no interest or skill in the rest of the skills required by the team. See also T-Shaped and Broken Comb
Iteration.
A timeboxed cycle of development on a product or deliverable in which all of the work that is needed to deliver value is performed
Iterative Life Cycle
An approach that allows feedback for unfinished work to improve and modify that work.
Kaizen Events
Events aimed at improvement of the system
Kanban Board
A visualization tool that enables improvements to the flow of work by making bottlenecks and work quantities visible
Kanban Method
An agile method inspired by the original Kanban inventory control system and used specifically for knowledge work
Kanban is a lean method tomanage work.
* This approach aims to manage work by balancing demands with available capacity, and by improving the handling of systemlevel bottlenecks.
* Work items are visualized to give participants a view of progress and process, from start to finish.
* Work is pulled as capacity permits, rather than work being pushed into the process when requested
Large Scale Scrum (LeSS).
Large-Scale Scrum is a product development framework that extends Scrum with scaling guidelines while preserving the original purposes of Scrum.
Lean Software Development (LSD).
Lean software development is an adaptation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain and is based on a set of principles and practices for achieving quality, speed, and customer alignment
The Lean approach is also often referred to as the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) strategy, in which a team releases a bare-minimum version of its product to the market, learns from users what they like, don’t like and want to be added, and then iterates based on this feedback
Life Cycle
The process through which a product is imagined, created, and put into use.
Mobbing.
technique in which multiple team members focus simultaneously and coordinate their contributions on a particular work item
Organizational Bias
The preferences of an organization on a set of scales characterized by the following core values: exploration versus execution, speed versus stability, quantity versus quality, and flexibility versus predictability
Organizational Change Management
A comprehensive, cyclic, and structured approach for transitioning individuals, groups, and organizations from the current state to a future state with intended business benefits.
Paint-Drip
See Broken Comb.
Pairing.
See Pair Work
Pair Programming
Pair work that is focused on programming
Pair Work
technique of pairing two team members to work simultaneously on the same work item.
Personas.
An archetype user representing a set of similar end users described with their goals, motivations, and representative personal characteristics
Pivot.
A planned course correction designed to test a new hypothesis about the product or strategy
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA).
An iterative management method used in organizations to facilitate the control and continual improvement of processes and products.
Plan-Driven Approach.
See Predictive Approach
Predictive Approach
An approach to work management that utilizes a work plan and management of that work plan throughout the life cycle of a project
Predictive Life Cycle
A more traditional approach, with the bulk of planning occurring up- front, then executing in a single pass; a sequential process
Product Backlog
An ordered list of user-centric requirements that a team maintains for a product.
Product Owner
A person responsible for maximizing the value of the product and who is ultimately responsible and accountable for the end product that is built. See also Service Request Manager.
Progressive Elaboration
The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a proje management plan as greater amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available.
Refactoring.
A product quality technique whereby the design of a product is improved by enhancing its maintainability and other desired attributes without altering its expected behavior.
Retrospective.
A regularly occurring workshop in which participants explore their work and results in order to improve both process and product
Rolling Wave Planning
An iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher level
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)
A knowledge base of integrated patterns for enterprise- scale lean–agile development.
Scrum.
An agile framework for developing and sustaining complex products, with specific roles, events, and artifacts
Scrumban.
management framework that emerges when teams employ Scrum as the chosen way of working and use the Kanban Method as a lens through which to view, understand, and continuously improve how they work
Scrum Board
An information radiator that is utilized to manage the product and sprint backlogs and show the flow of work and its bottlenecks
Scrum Master
The coach of the development team and process owner in the Scrum framework. Removes obstacles, facilitates productive events and defends the team from disruptions. See also Flow Master
Scrum of Scrums
technique to operate Scrum at scale for multiple teams working on the same product, coordinating discussions of progress on their interdependencies, and focusing on how to integrate the delivery of software, especially in areas of overlap
Scrum Team
Describes the combination of development team, scrum master, and process owner used in Scrum.
Self-Organizing Team
A cross-functional team in which people fluidly assume leadership as needed to achieve the team’s objectives
Servant Leadership
The practice of leading through service to the team, by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members to enable the highest possible team performance
Service Request Manager
The person responsible for ordering service requests to maximize value in a continuous flow or Kanban environment. Equivalent to product owner.
Siloed Organization
An organization structured in such a way that it only manages to contribute a subset of the aspects required for delivering value to customers. For contrast, see Value Stream.
Single Loop Learning
The practice of attempting to solve problems by just using specific predefined methods, without challenging the methods in light of experience
Smoke Testing
The practice of using a lightweight set of tests to ensure that the most important functions of the system under development work as intended
Specification by Example (SBE)
A collaborative approach to defining requirements and business-oriented functional tests for software products based on capturing and illustrating requirements using realistic examples instead of abstract statements
Spike.
A short time interval within a project, usually of fixed length, during which a team conducts research or prototypes an aspect of a solution to prove its viability
Sprint.
Describes a timeboxed iteration in Scrum
Sprint Backlog
A list of work items identified by the Scrum team to be completed during the Scrum sprint.
Sprint Planning
A collaborative event in Scrum in which the Scrum team plans the work for the current sprint.
In the sprint Planning Meeting, the Product Owner and the development team take the time to understand what will be worked on in the upcoming sprint, to estimate the level of effort of that work, and to define what “Done” means at the end of the sprint
Story Point
A unit-less measure used in relative user story estimation techniques
Swarming.
A technique in which multiple team members focus collectively on resolving a specific impediment
Technical Debt
The deferred cost of work not done at an earlier point in the product life cycle
Examples of technical debt are software code clean-up, maintenance, and standardization
Test-Driven Development
A technique where tests are defined before work is begun, so that work in progress is validated continuously, enabling work with a zero defect mindset
Timebox.
A fixed period of time, for example, 1 week, 1 fortnight, 3 weeks, or 1 month. See also Iteration.
T-shaped
Refers to a person with one deep area of specialization and broad ability in the rest of the skills required by the team. See also I-Shaped and Broken Comb
User Story
A brief description of deliverable value for a specific user. It is a promise for a conversation to clarify details
User Story Mapping
A visual practice for organizing work into a useful model to help understand the sets of high-value features to be created over time, identify omissions in the backlog, and effectively plan releases that deliver value to users
UX Design
The process of enhancing the user experience by focusing on improving the usability and accessibility to be found in the interaction between the user and the product
Value Stream
An organizational construct that focuses on the flow of value to customers through the delivery of specific products or services
Value Stream Mapping
A lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer. Used to eliminate wasteful work to reduce the time it takes to create value for the customer. The objective is to reduce the total cycle time.
Agile Manifesto
Individual andInteractionOver Process and Tools
Working Product Over ComprehensiveDocumentation
CustomerCollaborationOver Contract Negotiation
Responding toChangeOver Following the Plan
Characteristics of Iterative
Improve the product or result through successive prototypes or proofs of concepts which provides new stakeholder feedback.
Teams may use timeboxing on a given iteration.
Benefits projects when complexity is high, have frequent changes, or when the scope is subject to differing stakeholder views
Characteristics of Incremental
Optimize work for delivering value to sponsors or customers more often
than a single final product.
Teams plan initial deliverables before beginning their work.
The degree of change and variation is less important than ensuring
customers get value as soon as possible
Themes
are long-term strategic objectives with a broader scope.
* They provide context for decision-making and help navigate the product strategy within the organization.
* Agile themes sit on top of the work breakdown hierarchy and drive the creation of epics.
Epics
are collections of tasks or user stories.
* Epics break down development work into shippable components while
keeping the daily work connected to the larger theme.
* Epics are more specific than themes and can be measured so that PMs can
observe their contribution to the organization’s overall goal.
* User stories are the smallest piece of work in the agile framework
User stories
are the smallest piece of work in the agile framework.
* A user story is a brief explanation of a product feature written from the end
user’s perspective that articulates how the user will experience value.
* Some organizations may classify larger user stories (stories that can’t be
delivered within a single sprint) as epics.
* Alternatively, larger stories could be broken down into sub-tasks.
Index card has the 3 Cs: card, conversation, confirmation