Vocabulary Flashcards
1
Q
100-Point Method
A
A prioritization method which requires each stakeholder to distribute their 100
points, as votes, across available work items.
2
Q
5 Whys Technique
A
A technique to find the root cause for a particular problem by repeatedly asking the
question “Why?” It is an iterative and interrogative technique which is aimed at finding the cause and
effect of a particular problem.
3
Q
80/20 Rule
A
(Pareto principle) States that for the majority of cases, 80% of consequences are a result of 20% of the causes.
4
Q
A3
A
Either a process for solving a particular problem, or a general way of looking at things, in which the
pertinent information is limited to what will fit on a single sheet of paper. Named for the standard A3-
size sheet of paper.
5
Q
AC
Actual Cost
A
The realized cost incurred for the work performed on an activity during a specific time-period.
See also budget at completion, earned value, estimate at completion, estimate to complete, and planned value.
6
Q
Acceptance Criteria
A
- A set of conditions that are to be met before deliverables are accepted. See also deliverable.
- A formal list of predefined requirements or conditions that should be satisfied in order to mark the
deliverable as complete
7
Q
ATDD
Acceptance Test-Driven Development
A
Abbreviated as ATDD, a development method where team members with different perspectives collaborate early on to develop acceptance test criteria that
capture the requirements of work items.
8
Q
Activity
A
A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.
9
Q
Activity Code
A
An alphanumeric value assigned to each activity that enables classifying, sorting, and filtering. See also activity identifier and activity label.
10
Q
Activity Identifier
A
A unique alphanumeric value assigned to an activity and used to differentiate that activity from other activities. See also activity code and activity label.
11
Q
Activity Label
A
A phrase that names and describes an activity. See also activity code and activity identifier.
12
Q
Adaptation
A
Changes done in product or process as soon as the need surfaces, to reduce the practical problems or any deviations that can give rise to risks or issues.
13
Q
Adaptive Planning:
A
A technique in which high-level planning is done at the beginning. As a project progresses, detailed planning is done considering the latest changes. This allows for accommodation of changes in the requirements, even late into the development process.
14
Q
Affinity Estimate
A
A technique used for conducting high-level estimations for work items. Work items are compared and grouped together based on their size, then a high-level relative estimation is done for each of the work items. This is simple yet fast.
15
Q
Agile
A
A term used to describe a mindset of values and principles aimed at flexibility, communication,
collaboration, and simplicity based on short iterations and continuous feedback from the customer as
set forth in the Agile Manifesto. Agile is an iterative and incremental approach to deliver values to the
customer early and continuously. See also Agile Manifesto.
16
Q
Agile Coach
A
An individual with knowledge and experience in agile who can train, mentor, facilitate, and guide organizations and teams through their agile transformation.
17
Q
Agile Life Cycle
A
An approach that is both iterative and incremental to develop and refine work items and
deliver frequently.
18
Q
Agile Manifesto
A
Published in 2001 by a group of 17 software developers as the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, the document that lays out the original values and principles that led to the initiation of Agile development methods such as Scrum and Kanban.
19
Q
Agile Mindset
A
Thinking and practicing the core Agile values and principles in spirit, as laid out in the Agile Manifesto, to continuously deliver value to the customer and adapt as needed.
20
Q
Agile Practitioner
A
Also known as an Agilist, someone who collaborates with cross-functional teams in line with Agile techniques and concepts.
21
Q
Agile Principles
A
The twelve principles for project delivery enumerated in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. See also Agile Manifesto.
22
Q
Agile Unified Process
A
A simplified process framework for developing business application software using agile techniques and concepts that are modeled on the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
23
Q
Agilest
A
someone who collaborates with cross-functional teams in line with Agile techniques and concepts.
24
Q
Analogous Estimating
A
A technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project. See also bottom-up estimating, parametric estimating, program evaluation and review technique, and three-point estimating.
25
Anti-Pattern
A known, flawed pattern of work that is not advisable.
26
Apportioned Effort
An activity where effort is allotted proportionately across certain discrete efforts and not divisible into discrete efforts. Apportioned effort is one of three earned value management types of activities used to measure work performance. See also discrete effort and level of effort.
27
Artifacts
The tangible by-products, specific to a project, that represent the work and value, helping bring transparency. Artifacts form a basis for inspection and adaptation. Examples are product vision, product backlog, project (product or service) increment, and design document.
28
Assumption
A factor in the planning process considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.
29
Audit
A structured and independent process used to assess and verify if the activities in a project conform to the standard policies, process, and procedures defined at the organizational and project levels.
30
Automated Code Quality Analysis
Scripted analysis of code to ensure functionality, spot vulnerabilities, and style consistency, which assumes greater significance when working collaboratively on code.
31
BAC
| Budget at Completion
the sum of all budgets established for the work to be
performed. See also actual cost, earned value, estimate at completion, estimate to complete, and
planned value.
32
Backlog
| Product Backlog
An ordered list of user-centric requirements that a team maintains for a product.
33
Backlog Refinement
| Backlog Grooming
the progressive elaboration of project requirements or the ongoing activity in which the team collaboratively reviews, updates, and writes requirements to satisfy the need of the customer request.
34
Backward Pass
A critical path method technique for calculating the late start and late finish dates by working backward through the schedule model from the project end date. See also critical path method and forward pass
35
Baseline
The approved version of a work product that can be changed using formal change control procedures and is used as the basis for comparison to actual results. See also cost baseline, performance measurement baseline, schedule baseline, and scope baseline.
36
BCR
| Benefit Cost Ratio
an indicator used in cost benefit analysis to present the
comparison between the proposed costs and expected benefits of a proposed project. Proposed benefit
is divided by proposed cost to derive BCR. If a project has a BCR greater than 1.0, then it is considered
advisable.
37
BDD
| Behavior-Driven-Development
An Agile test-first methodology that focuses on the actual behavior of a work item from the end user’s perspective.
38
BDD
| Behavior-Driven-Development
An Agile test-first methodology that focuses on the actual behavior of a work item from the end user’s perspective.
39
Blended Agile
The combined use of two or more Agile frameworks, methods, elements, or practices, as opposed to a hybrid Agile approach, which employs some traditional predictive elements.
40
Blocker
| Impediment
An obstacle that prevents the team from achieving its objectives
41
Bottom-up Estimating
A method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower-level components of the work breakdown structure.
42
BRD
| Business Requirements Document
A list of all requirements for a specific project.
43
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.
44
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.
45
Burndown Chart
A chart that graphically conveys the work remaining relative to the time remaining in the timebox.
46
Burnup Chart
A graphical representation of the work completed toward the release of a product.
47
Cadence
A rhythm of execution. See also timebox
48
Cause-and-Effect Diagram
Also known as a fishbone diagram or Ishikawa diagram, a visual tool that helps identify, sort, and display possible causes of a specific problem or quality characteristic.
49
Caves and Common
Collaborative working spaces for the team. Caves would be an area for team members to work alone or in isolation. Common is an area for working in groups and collaborating.
50
CFD
| Cumulative Flow Diagram
an area chart that depicts the quantity of work in a given state, showing arrivals, time in queue, quantity in queue, and departure.
51
Change Control
A process whereby modifications to documents, deliverables, or baselines associated with a project are identified, documented, approved, or rejected. See also change control board and change control system.
52
Change Control Board
A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying, or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions. See also change control and change control system.
53
Change Control System
A set of procedures that describes how modifications to project deliverables and documentation are managed and controlled. See also change control and change control board.
54
Change Request
A formal proposal to modify any document, deliverable, or baseline.
55
CI
| Continuous Integration
a practice in which each team member's work product is frequently integrated and validated by one another. Typically, teams configure CI to include compilation,
source control integration, and unit test execution.
56
Coarse-Grained Requirements
A set of requirements defined at a high level. See also fine-grained requirements.
57
Code of Accounts
A numbering system used to uniquely identify each component of the work breakdown structure.
58
Collective Code Ownership
A project acceleration and collaboration technique whereby any teammember is authorized to modify any project work product or deliverable, thus emphasizing team-wid ownership and accountability.
59
Collocated Team
A team where project team members work from the same location, mostly in the same room, close to each other. It helps in real-time interactions.
60
Communications Management Plan
A component of the project, program, or portfolio management plan that describes how, when, and by whom information will be administered and disseminated. See also project management plan.
61
Complex User Story
A fundamentally large or big work item that cannot be further decomposed into smaller subparts to create multiple independent simple stories.
62
Compound User Story
Also known as an epic, a large user story which comprises multiple shorter user stories; a big chunk of work that can be decomposed into smaller subparts as features or user stories.
63
Configuration Management System
A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts
64
Configuration Management System
A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts
65
Constrained Optimization
A project selection method which uses mathematical algorithms for large projects that require complex and comprehensive calculations.
66
Constraint
A limiting factor that affects the execution of a project, program, portfolio, or process.
67
Contingency Plan
A document describing actions that the project team can take if predetermined trigger conditions occur.
68
Contingency Reserve
Time or money allocated in the schedule or cost baseline for known risks with active response strategies. See also management reserve and project budget.
69
Continuous Delivery
Delivering small increments of work to customers quickly and often making use of the automation technology.
70
Control Account
A management control point where scope, budget, actual cost, and schedule are integrated and compared to earned value for performance measurement.
71
Control Chart
A visual representation that systematically plots the readings of a parameter of a process or product that is being inspected.
72
COQ
| Cost of Quality
a method used to determine where and what amount of an organization's resources are being used for doing things right the first time. Also calculates the resources
used for rectifying things that are not done right the first time.
73
Corrective Action
An intentional activity that realigns the performance of the project work with the project management plan. See also preventive action.
74
Cost Baseline
The approved version of work package cost estimates and contingency reserve that can be changed using formal change control procedures. Used as the basis for comparison to actual results. See also baseline, performance measurement baseline, schedule baseline, and scope baseline.
75
Cost Management Plan
A component of a project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured, and controlled. See also project management plan.
76
CPI
| Cost Performance Index
a measure of the cost efficiency of budgeted resources
expressed as the ratio of earned value to actual cost. See also schedule performance index.
77
CV
| cost variance
the amount of budget deficit or surplus at a given point in time, expressed as the difference between the earned value and the actual cost. See also schedule variance.
77
CV
| Cost Variance
the amount of budget deficit or surplus at a given point in time, expressed as the difference between the earned value and the actual cost. See also schedule variance.
78
Crashing
A schedule compression technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources. See also fast tracking and schedule compression.
79
Critical Chain Method
A schedule method that allows the project team to place buffers on any project schedule path to account for limited resources and project uncertainties.
80
Critical Path
The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration. See also critical path activity and critical path method.
81
Critical Path Activity
Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule. See also critical path and critical path method.
82
Critical Path Method
A method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model. See also critical path and critical path activity.
83
Cross-Functional Team
A team that includes practitioners with all the skills necessary to deliver valuable product increments.
84
Crystal Family of Methodologies
A collection of lightweight agile software development methods focused on adaptability toward a particular circumstance.
85
CFD
| Cumulative Flow Diagram
Abbreviated as CFD, an area chart that depicts the quantity of work in a given state, showing arrivals, time in queue, quantity in queue, and departure.
86
Cycle Time
A measure of the time elapsed from the actual start of work on a work item (story, task, bug, or support incident) up to the time it is ready for delivery. Cycle time is a measure of process capability.
87
DAD
| Disciplined Agile Delivery.
a process decision framework that enables simplified
process decisions around incremental and iterative solution delivery.
88
Daily Scrum
Also known as a daily standup, a short, daily team meeting to review progress, announce intentions for the day, and share any difficulties encountered or expected.
89
Data Date
A point in time when the status of the project is recorded.
90
Decision Tree Analysis
A diagramming and calculation technique for evaluating the implications of a chain of multiple options in the presence of uncertainty.
91
Decomposition
A technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
92
Defect Repair
An intentional activity to modify a nonconforming product or product component.
93
DoD
| Definition of Done
a team's shared understanding about all the criteria required to be met so that a deliverable can be considered ready for customer use. Includes the acceptance criteria, quality parameters, and nonfunctional requirements to be met.
94
DoR
| Definition of Ready
a team's checklist for a user-centric requirement that has just enough information for the team to begin working on it.
95
Deliverable
Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is produced to complete a process, phase, or project.
96
DevOps
A collection of practices for creating a smooth flow of delivery by improving collaboration between the development and operations staff.
97
Discrete Effort
An activity that can be planned and measured and that yields a specific output. Discrete effort is one of three earned value management types of activities used to measure work performance. See also apportioned effort and level of effort.
98
Distributed Team
Also know as a remote team or virtual team, a project team which has team members spread across different geographic locations and working on the same project from different locations. Team members work for a common project goal and are often connected using the latest collaboration tools.
99
Dot Voting
A quick and simple method for collaborative decisions. The decision or option which gets maximum dots is considered the team’s decision.
100
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.
101
Dreyfus Model
A model for skill acquisition. According to this model, every individual goes through five stages during the process of skill acquisition: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.
102
DSDM
| Dynamic Systems Development Method
An Agile project delivery framework. It deals with project rather than just the development and delivery of a product. The project context requires a focus on the wider business need and all aspects of the solution that evolves to meet that need. Intended to provide more governance and discipline to the iterative way of working.
103
Duration
The total number of work periods required to complete an activity or work breakdown structure component, expressed in hours, days, or weeks. See also effort.
104
EAC
| Estimate at Completion
the expected total cost of completing all work expressed as the sum of the actual cost to date and the estimate to complete.
105
EAC
| Estimate at Completion
the expected total cost of completing all work expressed as the sum of the actual cost to date and the estimate to complete.
106
Early Finish Date
In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish based on the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints. See also critical path method.
107
Early Start Date
In the critical path method, the earliest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start based on the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints. See also critical path method.
108
EV
| Earned Value
the measure of work performed expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work.
109
EVM
| Earned Value Management:
a methodology that combines scope, schedule, and
resource measurements to assess project performance and progress.
110
Effort
The number of labor units required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure
component, often expressed in hours, days, or weeks. See also duration.
111
Elevator Statement
A succinct description of a product that helps the project team focus on product goals. Also known as an elevator pitch or vision statement.
112
Empiricism
Making decisions based on the actual experience. An empirical approach implies that project decisions should be based on facts, evidence, and experiences.
113
EMV
| Expected Monetary Value
a statistical technique used to calculate gains in
monetary terms for a certain decision made.
114
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Conditions not under the immediate control of the team that influence, constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio.
115
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Conditions not under the immediate control of the team that influence, constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio.
116
Epic
a large user story which comprises multiple shorter user stories; a big chunk of work that can be decomposed into smaller subparts as features or user stories.
117
Escaped Defect
A defect that goes undetected in all rounds of testing but is found in the production environment.
118
ETC
| Estimate to Complete
the expected cost to finish all remaining project work.
119
EVO
| Evolutionary Value Delivery
a method that focuses on early and frequent delivery of small increments of value to the customer, with quality as an integral part of it. Openly credited as the
first Agile method containing a specific component no other method has. The focus is on delivering
multiple measurable value requirements to stakeholders.
120
XP
| 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.
121
Fast Failure
An approach of trying new things, getting fast feedback, and then quickly reviewing and adapting as per the feedback. In cases where there is a high degree of uncertainty, it is often less expensive to start working on basic deliverables, get the feedback, and make immediate decisions on continuing or stopping the planned deliverables.
