In communication, the role that requires the receiver to receive and understand what is said and provide feedback to the sender.
A technique designed to rapidly estimate a large feature backlog. It uses shirt sizes, coffee cup sizes, or Fibonacci sequence of numbers to rapidly place user stories into similarly sized groups.
A set of principles for Agile project management based on the Agile Manifesto. Agile emphasizes self-organizing teams, customer collaboration, rapid releases, responding to change, and the elevation of value.
A document created in 2001 that lays out the guiding principles of Agile projects and methodologies. The Mainfesto is organized around four statements that describe the values that Agile Methodologies share.
A representation of the workflow of a process or system that the team can review before it is implemented in code. Stakeholders and non-programmers should be able to understand and work with the model more easily than code.
Team space that encourages colocation, collaboration, communication, transparency and visibility.
Hi-tech or low-tech software or artificats designed to increae the sense of team and to encourage participation among the members.
A method of gathering ideas from a group. It is designed to elicit a large number of ideas in a short time frame and to foster creative responses. When brainstorming, participants throw out ideas in rapid fire, and no one is allowed to comment on or discuss a suggestion until everyone has finished.
A chart used to communicate progress during and at the end of an iteration. It shows the number of stories that have been completed and the ones that remain. The idea is that as the project progresses over time, the backlog of work will "burn down" or lessen.
The burn rate is the cost of the Agile Team, or the rate at which it consumes resources.
The opposite of a burn down chart, showing functionality completed over time. Progress trends up as stories are completed and value is accumulated. Burn up charts do not show work in progress. So, it is not an accurate way to predict the end of the project.
A regular meeting on an Agile project, such as the iteration planning meeting, the daily stand-up, the iteration review, and the iteration retrospective.
On Agile projects, this most often refers to the changing requirements. Agile embraces changing requirements, even if they occur late in the project, viewing it as a competitive advantage the team can give to the customer.
The document that formally begins the project. Charters are creatd in the project's initiation, and they include the project's justification, a summary-level budget, the major milestones, critical success factors, constraints, assumptions, and authorization for the team to being working.
Anyone on an Agile project who is involved but not committed. Chickens should not be part of the core project team but may have input.
In the eXtreme programming (XP) methodology, the Coach is the person who keeps the team focussed on learning and the XP process. The Coach embodies the XP values and will help the team deliver value while improving.
Working together toward a common goal. Distributed virtual teams can use Agile Tools to accomplish collaboration.
An enviornment where the entire team is collectively responsible for 100% of the code. This means that each member of the team is cross-capable of maintaining everyone else's code. Collective code ownership discourages specialization and the formation of silos.
Having the entire team physically working in one room. This is slightly different from the "War" room in traditional project management which is used to brainstorm ideas to address a challenge or risk that has become a reaility.
Transparent and free flowing information that is shared.
Creating an environment free of distractions and interruptions for one or more team members.
A term describing the difficulty of estimating early due to unknowns and how that should improve over time. The cone of uncertainty indicates that the ability to estimate should get more accurate if estimates are given shortly before the work is performed.
Areas of disagreement on the team. Some conflict is healthy and encouraged on Agile projects, as it can lead to process improvement and a higher quality product.
The practice of regularly checking in each team member's work and building and testing the entire system. The most rigorous methodologies do this daily with the goal of quickly catching systemic errors that may have been introduced.
A chart that is part of an information radiator that shows feature backlogs, work in progress, and completed features over time.
The actual customer or the representative who will define and prioritize business value.
The amount of time needed to complete a feature or user story.
An important Agile Ceremony. It is a brief meeting held at the start of the day where the entire team attends and participates by briefly answering three questions - "What did you accomplish yesterday?," "What do you plan to today?," and "What is impeding your progress?" An additional question to consider in practice is "What is being pushed to another team's way?" This meeting should be kept at 15 min.
An acronym describing desirable attributes of a product backlog. It stands for "(D)etailed appropriately, (E)stimable, (E)mergent, and (P)rioritized.
Breaking down epics or large stories into smaller user stories. This concept is similar to the decomposition on traditional projects.
Agile Manifesto values less than working software. Agile practitioners recommend the right level of documentation as being barely sufficient.
An acronym for "Don't Repeat Yourself." The principle emphasizes the value of work not done. For instance, saying "This module is not DRY" indicates that the code is repeated instead of leveraging.
A component of the DEEP acronym that indicates that the product backlog items should grow and chnage over time as user stores are completed. (see DEEP)
The ability to relate to others and to lead. Emotional Intelligence is not directly related to traditional intelligence measures and is an important leadership skill for leaders to be able to relate to teams.
A necessary attribute of agile teams that allows the team to make the ncessary decisions to add value. This is in contrast to a traditional project where teams seek permission to implement.
A very large story that may span multiple iterations. Epcis must be disaggregated into their component user stories before they are useful at a tactic level.
Defects that are reported by the customer after being delivered by the team. Elevated number of escaped defects is an indication of a process problem with the team.
A team manufactured persona (see Persona) that is strongly exaggerated in order to elicit requirements that standard persona may miss.
A highly disciplined Agile Methodology that runs one week iterations and has programmers work in pairs. XP defines the roles of Coach, Customer, Programmer, Tracker, and Tester.
Often considered similar to a Story.
A sequence of numbers often used in Agile estimating. The numbers are calculated by beginning with 0, 1, and adding the previous two numbers together. The sequence is simplified for estimation purposes in the Planning Poker leading to the series 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100.
A popular technique from Toyota where the question "why" is asked five times repeatedly each time looking for a deeper level cause for the problem.
A technique for analyzing the forces that are encouraging and resisting potential or real change and the strength of these forces.
In an Agile context, an action that a system performs that adds value to the customer. If the user can't perceive, see, or experience value, then, it does not count as functionality delivered.
In an Agile context, the constant process of cleaning up the product backlog through various activities such as removing items, disaggregating them, or estimating them.
Unwritten rules that apply to all the team members. Ground rules should be communicated with everyone on the team.
Face-to-face communication. It is referred to as high-bandwidth since much of the information is transmitted through body language, posture, expression, and inflection.
The amount of time an assignment would take if there were no interruptions or distractions. (See Cycle time)
The Agile concept that functionality should be delivered in small stages rather than as a complete solution. The customer benefits from seeing the solution evolve by being able to influence it and learn from it as it develops.
A group of artifacts that is used to communicate project status to the team and other stakeholders. Information radiators are an important part of maintaining transparency and visibility into the team's progress.
A term used in contrast to an information radiator. It is used to denote a chart that is not visible to everyone and that must be opened up and explored to be understood.
A group of exercises used to elicit requirements from product owners, users, and stakeholders. Innovation games help frame the process of requirements-gathering in a more creative way.
In Agile context, this term generally refers to face-to-face conversations between team members, customers, and stakeholders. The Agile Manifesto makes it clear that "individuals and interactions" are favored over "processes and tools".
A way of expressing profit as an interest rate earned. This helps organizations weigh the benefits of alternative investments. WHen dealing with the IRR, a bigger number is more desirable.
An acronym describing the desirable properties of a good user story. It stands for (I)ndependent, (N)egotiable, (V)aluable, (E)stimable, (S)mall, and (T)estable.
A cycle of work that is repated on Agile proejcts. Iterations generally consist of a short planning session, followed by a period of work, and finally a retrospective to evalute the process and the results to make adjustments. Several iterations may be combined to form a release, and iterations are repated multiple times throughout the project. Agile principles state that iterations may last from two weeks to two months.
The work that is needed to be performed on a given iteration. The iteration backlog is expected to "burn down" throughout the iteration. (See Product Backlog)
The half-day meeting at the end of an iteration where the team meets to discuss the work that was done and look for ways to improve the next iteration. An iteration retrospective is focussed on process improvement.
The Japanese management philosophy of continuous improvement. After an initial, generally incomplete delivery, Kaizen advocates small, frequent changes initiated by the team.
A Japanese management philosophy that literally means, "signal." It focuses on promoting visibility of the work-in-progress (WIP) and limiting the amount of work-in-progress the team allows.
An artifact that shows work-in-progress (WIP). Kanban boards display the workflow stages and where tasks are within that workflow.
A Lean principle indicating that the team should make decisions as late as possible preserving all the options as long as possible.
An Agile methodology seeking to maximize the work that is not performed based on the seven principles of
• Eliminate Waste
• Amplify Learning
• Decide as Late as possible
• Deliver as Early as Possible
• Empower the Team
• Build Integrity In, and
• See the whole.
Substituting real-world examples for system components to hep non-technical stakeholders understand problems and solutions. XP advocates the use of metaphors.
A specific set of practices, processes, and artifcats that prescribe how a project should be planned, executed, and controlled.
The smallest deliverable that can add value to the users. A single MMF is tyypically comprised of a group of user stories.
An attribute of the user story that describes that the stories are not set in stone. They can be challenged and changed as they transform from the index cards into working software. (See INVEST)
A concept that is less valued than customer collaboration according to the Agile Manifesto.
A way of factoring in the time value of money to calculat a project's worth. Net present value (NPV) considers project cost into equation. (See Present Value).
Communications that occurs as a result of Agile Team setup sitting together making it possible for mmbers to gather and benefit from unwritten and unspoken communication.
A practice advocated in the eXtreme Programming methodology. Developers work in pairs with one programmer "driving" keyboard at a time and the other looking on and participating from a different perspective.
A chart used primarily in requirement gathering activities to pause conversation that might distract from the immediate goal. Ideas are parked for later discussions.
An imaginary person or identity created by the team to model interactions with the system in order to gather requirements. (See Extreme Persona)
Someone on an Agile project who is committed and is impacted by the outcome (See Chicken).
An agile exercise to create a release plan where each story is estimated for effort by the team. Using that information, the customer prioritizes it according to the combination of business value, effort, and cost.
An agile exercise that allows members to individually estimate the effort to program a user story by writing the estimate on an index card. Then, each team member simultanously turns the card. A discussion follows to understand high and low estimates. The estimates subsequently converge.
A way of factoring in the time value of money to calculate a project's worth. These calculations are very useful to compare one potential project with another.
All of the known features that are to be implemented throughout the project, regardless of the planned iteration or release.
An important role in Agile representing the customer, users, and stakeholders. This role understand the business requirements and advocates for the overall business value of potential features. The product owner maintains the product backlog and also leads the first part of each iteration planning meeting.
An artifact that shows an overview of current and/or planned product functionality. The product roadmap will have less detail than the release plan.
An Agile role defined within the eXtreme Programming methodology that works in paris with one person writing the code while anotehr observes and advises.
A characteristic feature of project, as defined by Project Mangement Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), signifying an iterative approach where planning occurs in cycles rather than all up front. Agile projects which use progressive elaboration typically do some planning, some execution, some monitoring and controlling, and then repeat that cycle.
A temporary understanding to create a unique product, service, or result.
Characteristic factors that are not measured but still affect product quality.
Conformance to specifications or requirements.
Characteristic factors that can be measured and quantified affecting product quality
In Agile context, the constant reorganization of working code to bring the organization in line with its functionality and make it more maintainable. Refactoring should not have noticeable effects on functionality or performance.
Estimating the size of a function or user story on the size of another.
A packaged group of iteration outcomes designed to be delivered to end users and customers. The working software devliered in each release is expected to be highly stable.
The percentage that shows what return an organization makes by investing in something.
Any uncertainty that may affect the project positively or negatively.
A chart where the risk to project success associated with each feature is displayed. The project risk will "burn down" or lessen as the proejct progresses and functionality is completed.
The way how an individual interface with an Agile project. Agile roles on a project may include Customer, Product Owner, Stakeholder, Sponsor, Team member, Tester, Tracker, Scrum Master, and Coach.
A concept that helps in going through the various sources of a root problem. Decision tree and Ishikawa diagram are all examples.
A popular Agile methodology developed by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. This methodology defines the roles of Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Team. It practices daily stand-up meetings with theteam. Scrum iterations are known as Sprints. It is built upon the three pillars of visibility, inspection, and adaptation. Scrum Sprints are preceded by a planning meeting and followed by a retrospective.
A meeting of multiple Scrum teams, typically attended by the Scrum Master or a designated representative. Each team's progress is discussed, and the work of multiple teams is coordinated. This technique is often used to scale very large scrum projects where the team must be subdivided.
As one of the three important roles in Scrum Methodology, this role is responsible for helping the team to follow the Scrum process.
A popular acronym for the System Development Life Cycle. It is non-agile and is a waterfall approach emphasizing heavy up-front planning.
The Agile concept that teams should not be heavily managed or directed but should be formed more organically.
A popular leadership strategy proposed by Greenleaf. This leadership principle states that the Coach and Scrum Master function best when they lead by serving the team. Servant leaders do not ask anything of the team that they would not be willing to do themselves.
A condition where an individual or small group works in an isolated condition with little interaction outside. Agile projects favor more open and transparent communication instead of silos.
Symptoms of problems that commonly affect Agile teams and projects.
A quick experiment used to help the team answer a question and determine the path forward.
An iteration on a Scrum project that lasts between one week to one month.
Anyone with an interest in the project. This interest could be either positive or negative.
An index card that holds the user story. The index card format is used to limit the amount of detail.
A group of backlogged stories that are broken down and organized by user functionality with the goal of setting the right development priorities.
A unit of measure expressing the estimated difficult or the effort involved on developing a user story. Story points may be expressed in hours, days, or shirt/coffee cup sizes, or as a number in the Fibonacci sequence.
The pace or velocity that the team can maintain indefinitely. A steady pace is preferred over rushes.
A collaboration technique in Agile projects where the entire team is focused on a single user story that may be challenging.
Agile projects often label this as an Engineering task but tasks represent a smaller unit of work to deliver on the user story. Tasks themselves don't add value to the customer.
A very important Agile role representing a group of empowered and self-organized individuals that collectively shares the responsibility to deliver project value.
Technical decisions that the team chooses not to implement but that will become a bottleneck if not done eventually.
An Agile development practice where the acceptance tests for a module are defined before the module is developed. The code is then constructed around passing these tests.
The role defined by eXtreme Programming methodology that assists the customer in defining acceptance tests and then regularly measures the product against those tests and communicates the results.
Grouping the stories, iteration, or release by a main purpose. The Product Owner is responsible for the theme and the Team should agree on it.
Constraining the project or release by setting a firm delivery date and then working to get as much value and functionality in the delivery as the schedule allows.
The role defined by eXtreme Programming methodology that measures the team's progress and coommunicates it. The tracker will measure the iteration plan, the release paln, and tests and will generally post the results in the information radiator.
A value on Agile projects that is implemented through showing what each member of the team is working on and making each person's progress visible to all other team members.
One or more business requirements, expressing business functionality instead of technical tems, that will add value to the user. A user story is relatively small in terms of the effort it would take to implement. They are typically captured on story cards. (See INVEST)
THe process of ensuring that the product is acceptable to the customer.
The worth that a project delivers to the business. The quest to add value drives most team decisions.
A Lean technique to analyze the flow of materials and information through a chain of processes with the goal of elminating waste. It is intended to give the analyst a deeper understanding of the system.
An Agile practice allowing the customer or Product Owner to determine the functionality to implement based on the value delivered. This concept is also applied in capital project selection and justification.
The number of features or user stories that a team delivers in a fixed iteration.
The process of ensuring that the product confirms to specifications.
A team that is geographically distributed. Colocation is recommended by Agile teams; but Virtual team is a reality. Agile tooling using collaboration tools therefore is essential to deliver results.
The concept of making each team member's work and progress transparent to all interested stakeholders.
A location where the entire team can work in one dedicated space facilitating communication, emphasing sense of urgency, and avoiding silos.
A traditional non-Agile management philosophy that favors heavy up-front planning followed by long periods of execution and control.
An estimation technique where the team comes together for a presentation on user stories and to discuss the challenges. Estimates are then done in private. These estimates are plotted on a chart anonymously and the range of points is discussed to arrive at a consensus.
An acronym for Work In Progress. The goal is to limit the WIP so that the team maintains focus on completing tasks, maintaining quality, and delivering value.
A lightweight non-functional user interface design tht shows the major interface elements and how they would interact. There is no code written when designing wireframes.
A series of agreed-upon stages in development.
An Agile development methodology that focus on short iteration.
