Glossary of Scrum Terms

Question 1

A chart which shows the amount of work which is thought to remain in a backlog. Time is shown on the horizontal axis and work remaining on the vertical axis. As time progresses and items are drawn from the backlog and completed, a plot line showing work remaining may be expected to fall. The amount of work may be assessed in any of several ways such as user story points or task hours. Work remaining in Sprint Backlogs and Product Backlogs may be communicated by means of a burn-down chart. See also: Burnup Chart

Answer 1

Burn-down Chart

Question 2

A chart which shows the amount of work which has been completed. Time is shown on the horizontal axis and work completed on the vertical axis. As time progresses and items are drawn from the backlog and completed, a plot line showing the work done may be expected to rise. The amount of work may be assessed in any of several ways such as user story points or task hours. The amount of work considered to be in-scope may also be plotted as a line; the burn-up can be expected to approach this line as work is completed.

Answer 2

Burn-up Chart

Question 3

The quality of the relationship between certain Product Backlog items which may make them worthy of consideration as a whole. See also: Sprint Goal.

Answer 3

Coherent/Coherence

Question 4

Scrum Event that is a 15-minute time-boxed event held each day for the Development Team. The Daily Scrum is held every day of the Sprint. At it, the Development Team plans work for the next 24 hours. This optimizes team collaboration and performance by inspecting the work since the last Daily Scrum and forecasting upcoming Sprint work. The Daily Scrum is held at the same time and place each day to reduce complexity.

Answer 4

Daily Scrum

Question 5

A shared understanding of expectations that the Increment must live up to in order to be releasable into production. Managed by the Development Team.

Answer 5

Definition of Done

Question 6

Role within a Scrum Team accountable for managing, organizing and doing all development work required to create a releasable Increment of product every Sprint.

Answer 6

Development Team

Question 7

The process of the coming into existence or prominence of new facts or new knowledge of a fact, or knowledge of a fact becoming visible unexpectedly.

Answer 7

Emergence

Question 8

Process control type in which only the past is accepted as certain and in which decisions are based on observation, experience and experimentation. Empiricism has three pillars: transparency, inspection and adaptation.

Answer 8

Empiricism

Question 9

A shared set of development and technology standards that a Development Team applies to create releasable Increments of software.

Answer 9

Engineering standards

Question 10

The selection of items from the Product Backlog a Development Team deems feasible for implementation in a Sprint.

Answer 10

Forecast (of functionality)

Question 11

Scrum Artifact that defines the complete and valuable work produced by the Development Team during a Sprint. The sum of all Increments form a product.

Answer 11

Increment

Question 12

A Scrum Artifact that consists of an ordered list of the work to be done in order to create, maintain and sustain a product. Managed by the Product Owner.

Answer 12

Product Backlog

Question 13

The activity in a Sprint through which the Product Owner and the Development Teams add granularity to the Product Backlog.

Answer 13

Product Backlog refinement

Question 14

Role in Scrum accountable for maximizing the value of a product, primarily by incrementally managing and expressing business and functional expectations for a product to the Development Team(s).

Answer 14

Product Owner

Question 15

A shared understanding by the Product Owner and the Development Team regarding the preferred level of description of Product Backlog items introduced at Sprint Planning.

Answer 15

Ready

Question 16

A framework to support teams in complex product development. Scrum consists of Scrum Teams and their associated roles, events, artifacts, and rules, as defined in the Scrum GuideTM.

Answer 16

Scrum

Question 17

A physical board to visualize information for and by the Scrum Team, often used to manage Sprint Backlog. Scrum boards are an optional implementation within Scrum to make information visible.

Answer 17

Scrum Board

Question 18

The definition of Scrum, written and provided by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, co-creators of Scrum. This definition consists of Scrum’s roles, events, artifacts, and the rules that bind them together.

Answer 18

Scrum Guide™

Question 19

Role within a Scrum Team accountable for guiding, coaching, teaching and assisting a Scrum Team and its environments in a proper understanding and use of Scrum.

Answer 19

Scrum Master

Question 20

A self-organizing team consisting of a Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master.

Answer 20

Scrum Team

Question 21

A set of fundamental values and qualities underpinning the Scrum framework; commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage.

Answer 21

Scrum Values

Question 22

The management principle that teams autonomously organize their work. Self-organization happens within boundaries and against given goals. Teams choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team.

Answer 22

Self-organization

Question 23

Scrum Event that is time-boxed to one month or less, that serves as a container for the other Scrum events and activities. Sprints are done consecutively, without intermediate gaps.

Answer 23

Sprint

Question 24

Scrum Artifact that provides an overview of the development work to realize a Sprint’s goal, typically a forecast of functionality and the work needed to deliver that functionality. Managed by the Development Team.

Answer 24

Sprint Backlog

Question 25

A short expression of the purpose of a Sprint, often a business problem that is addressed. Functionality might be adjusted during the Sprint in order to achieve the Sprint Goal.

Answer 25

Sprint Goal

Question 26

Scrum Event that is time-boxed to 8 hours, or less, to start a Sprint. It serves for the Scrum Team to inspect the work from the Product Backlog that’s most valuable to be done next and design that work into Sprint backlog.

Answer 26

Sprint Planning

Question 27

Scrum Event that is set to a time-box of 3 hours, or less, to end a Sprint. It serves for the Scrum Team to inspect the past Sprint and plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint.

Answer 27

Sprint Retrospective

Question 28

Scrum Event that is set to a time-boxed of 4 hours, or less, to conclude the development work of a Sprint. It serves for the Scrum Team and the stakeholders to inspect the Increment of product resulting from the Sprint, assess the impact of the work performed on overall progress and update the Product backlog in order to maximize the value of the next period.

Answer 28

Sprint Review

Question 29

A person external to the Scrum Team with a specific interest in and knowledge of a product that is required for incremental discovery. Represented by the Product Owner and actively engaged with the Scrum Team at Sprint Review.

Answer 29

Stakeholder

Question 30

The typically unpredictable overhead of maintaining the product, often caused by less than ideal design decisions, contributing to the total cost of ownership. May exist unintentionally in the Increment or introduced purposefully to realize value earlier.

Answer 30

Technical Debt

Question 31

When the values of commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect are embodied and lived by the Scrum Team, the Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation come to life and build trust for everyone. The Scrum Team members learn and explore those values as they work with the Scrum events, roles and artifacts.

Answer 31

Values

Question 32

An optional, but often used, indication of the amount of Product Backlog turned into an Increment of product during a Sprint by a Scrum Team, tracked by the Development Team for use within the Scrum Team.

Answer 32

Velocity