Agile Glossary

Scrum, Kanban, XP, Definition, Done… A lot of terms that in the Agile world are common domain and for the most common of mortals can be gibberish.

If you do not want to get lost in all these words, know what each thing is and better understand how the Agile methodology can help you, do not miss this glossary, it will surely help you!… Not everything, but almost 😉

To

Agile

Set of methodologies and frameworks that focus on the iterative and incremental development of products and projects. It is based on the idea that requirements evolve as the project progresses. Although it initially originated in the SW area, by its philosophy it can be applied to almost any other type of non-technical area (development of physical products, marketing campaigns, IT infrastructures, etc.).

B

Burn-down Chart

In SCRUM this graph is used to measure the remaining work based on the estimates that the team has made and as well as the daily evolution of their work. It allows in a visual way, to see if there are any deviations in the initial planning and make decisions as soon as possible if necessary.

C

Cadence

The cadence of the sprint is the period of time known by the whole team in which they can focus on working on the elements they have agreed at the beginning of it. This creates less uncertainty, since this cadence is constantly repeated and creates knowledge of the team’s performance and productivity.

Acceptance Criteria

Points that will allow validating a user story once its development has been completed, will guide the development teams in their work and a user story cannot be considered finished if any of these criteria are not met.

D

Definition of Done

A list of checks that the team has highlighted as necessary to complete a scheduled Sprint task. This generates synchronization in the team since everyone understands the same thing to close an element and at the same time increases the quality of the iteration result.

Daily Meeting

Meeting that the team performs daily. Its duration does not exceed 15 minutes regardless of the number of team members and helps to visualize the status of the sprint as well as the existing problems to achieve its success.

And

Estimate

Estimates are used to quantify the size of the work to be done. They do not focus on costs or deadlines, but with the different iterations and based on experience facilitate the projection of the project and as well as the capacity of the team and possible needs to perform their work.

Scaling

Initially any agile methodology focuses on small teams but there are frameworks to scale agile to larger organizations. These frameworks can be more or less complex depending on the organization, some examples are SAFe, Nexus, Less…

Development Team

The development team is responsible for evolving and delivering what was agreed in the planning meeting according to the agreed quality standards. He owns the how.

F

Agile Framework (framework)

Established practices so that teams in an empirical way can deliver value as soon as possible and that they themselves can adapt this framework to improve their productivity, collaboration and achievement of objectives. SCRUM is one of them.

G

Flow Management

Through Kanban it is possible to easily visualize and manage the workflow of a team.

H

User Story

It is a representation of functional requirements. They are written in a natural way (user language). In agile methodologies, user stories should be as atomic as possible since this eliminates complexity and uncertainty.

I

Iteration

A short-term process in which the team focuses on solving, designing, or programming certain goals. In agile methodologies, each iteration helps us to know more about the project to be solved as well as to draw conclusions for improvement for subsequent iterations.

Increment

The delivery of everything that the team has developed during the sprint and has been finalized. The finished must conform to the definition of Finished of the computer, Definition of Done.

J

Just-In-Time

The Kanban method of managing work uses the Just-In-Time principle, which is based on the optimization of resources by eliminating unnecessary cost overruns. It contains 7 basic principles that define it and that are part of Lean thinking (flexible resources, organization based on small teams, pull work system, production carried out in small slots, production times must be reduced, continuous and effective relationship with suppliers, zero errors).

K

Kanban

Visual information system that emerged in Toyota. In the 80s it was adapted to the SW world and is currently one of the agile methods par excellence used for teams to control the workflow. It is applicable to any sector and field.

Kaizen

Quality control method very present in the industry, and also based on agile methodologies. It focuses on continuous improvement and the certainty that in small improvements, carried out in an organized manner, can make us achieve very important objectives.

L

Lean Manufacturing

Management model that is based on minimizing losses and waste in order to maximize the value delivered to the customer. It is very common in the industrial sector and is also one of the principles of agile methodologies.

P

Product Backlog

In the SCRUM framework, product backlog is the prioritized list at a high level of the functionalities to be performed in a product or project. The responsibility for its creation and management lies with the Product Owner.

Planning Meeting

Event in which the team selects the work to be done according to the priorities set by the Product Owner in the Product Backlog.

Product Owner

It is responsible for establishing the priorities of the project to achieve its objectives. He is in charge of what and his figure is vital to accompany and make the team understand the needs of the project.

R

Hindsight

Event in which the SCRUM team participates (Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team) and whose final objective is to find points of improvement to introduce in subsequent sprints or iterations.

S

Scrum

Framework based on short iterations, maximum of one month, oriented to deliver value to the client as soon as possible. It is one of the most widely used agile frameworks in the world today. It is applicable to any sector and field.

Scrum Master

Primary role in SCRUM which is responsible for facilitating the work of the members of a team within a project. Its main task is to help the team understand and adopt agile practices in general and SCRUM in particular and help in the resolution or unblocking of any problem that the team has and that prevents it from advancing in achieving the objectives of the project.

Spike

In Extreme Programming a spike is a product development method that is based on using the simplest solution to explore a possible solution.

Service Request Manager

In Kanban, he is responsible for prioritizing items and understanding customer needs and expectations.

Service Delivery Manager

This role is responsible for improving the fluidity with which requests move within the workflow.

T

Acceptance Test

Acceptance tests are created from the stories, the customer determines the test cases needed to ensure that the functionality detailed in the story works. The story is not considered complete until the Acceptance Tests have been passed.

V

Visualization

To visualize the workflow there is a system called Kanban which helps the teams.

Velocity

It refers to the number of story points a team can complete during a sprint. It is calculated by averaging the number of story points completed in previous sprints.

W

WIP

It is defined as Work In Progress. Indicates the number of tasks a team is currently working on. It delimits the workflow at any time, it is a numerical limit which allows the team to focus on finishing as soon as possible what is in progress.

X

XP

Extreme Programming, or extreme programming, is a software development methodology which includes the most common development practices. Its goal is that a development team can produce better quality SW consistently and in turn promoting a good quality of life for the team. It is also applicable to other sectors since it also includes values and tools that turn a team into a high-performance one.