Acceptance Criteria
In agile methodologies, acceptance criteria refers to a set of predefined requirements that must be met in order to mark a user story complete....
Glossary Category Agile & Development
Acceptance Test
In software development, an acceptance test refers to the process of testing a new system, feature, or functionality against predefined acceptance criteria.
Adaptive Software Development (ASD)
Adaptive Software Development (ASD) is a direct outgrowth of an earlier agile framework, Rapid Application Development (RAD). It aims to enable teams to quickly...
Agile
Agile is an iterative product-development methodology in which teams work in brief, incremental “sprints,” and then regroup frequently to review the work and make...
Agile Framework
An agile framework is one of many documented software-development approaches based on the agile philosophy articulated in the Agile Manifesto.
Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto is a brief document built on 4 values and 12 principles for agile software development. The Agile Manifesto was published in...
Agile Principles
There are 12 agile principles outlined in The Agile Manifesto in addition to the 4 agile values. These 12 principles for agile software development help...
Agile Product Owner
What is an Agile Product Owner? In an agile organization, the product owner is responsible for prioritizing and overseeing the development team’s tasks and...
Agile Transformation
Agile transformation is the process of transitioning an entire organization to a nimble, reactive approach based on agile principles. Understanding agile transformation begins with...
Agile Values
Agile Values refers to the set of 4 values outlined by the Agile Alliance in The Agile Manifesto. This set of values encourages putting...
Backlog
A backlog is a list of task-level details required to execute on a larger strategic plan. A quick glance at a prioritized backlog conveys...
Backlog Grooming
Backlog grooming, also referred to as backlog refinement or story time, is a recurring event for agile product development teams. The primary purpose of...
Burndown Chart
A burndown chart is a visual display of work completed and remaining in a project, sprint, or iteration. In most cases the x-axis of...
Business Agility
What is Business Agility? Business agility applies the principles of agile development to the entire organization. This allows companies to be more responsive to...
Business Transformation
What is Business Transformation? Business transformation is an umbrella term for making fundamental changes in how a business or organization runs. This includes personnel,...
Continuous Delivery
In software product development, continuous delivery (CD) is the successful execution of continuous deployment. Whereas continuous deployment aims to reduce the amount of time...
Continuous Deployment
In software product development, continuous deployment refers to a strategy that aims to reduce the amount of time between writing code and pushing it...
Continuous Integration
Continuous integration or CI, refers to an engineering practice that is said to help automate certain pieces of work and identify bugs early in...
Crystal Agile Framework
What is the Crystal Method? Crystal is an agile framework focusing on individuals and their interactions, as opposed to processes and tools. In other...
DEEP Backlog
A DEEP Backlog is one of the suggested objectives of a product backlog grooming session. DEEP is an acronym used to indicate a few key...
Definition of Done
In the Scrum agile framework, Definition of Done describes the requirements that must be met in order for a story to be considered complete....
Definition of Done
What Does the ‘Definition of Done’ Mean? In the Scrum agile framework, the Definition of Done describes the list of requirements that the team...
Definition of Ready
In the Scrum agile framework, Definition of Ready describes the requirements that must be met in order for a story to move from the...
Dependency
In project management, a dependency describes a relationship between two initiatives that must be executed in a particular order. If Initiative A is dependent...
Design Thinking
Design thinking is a framework for innovation based on viewing problems or needs from the user’s perspective. Because this human-centered approach demands a thorough...
DevOps
DevOps combines traditional software development and IT operations into a unified framework, merging coding, testing, packaging, integration, deployment, and monitoring into a single overarching...
Disciplined Agile (DA)
What is Disciplined Agile? Disciplined Agile (DA), is a process decision framework that puts individuals first and offers only lightweight guidance to help teams...
Documentation
Documentation, in a software context, refers to information either embedded into code or published separately that describes what the code is, how it works,...
Dual-Track Agile
Dual-track agile is a type of agile development in which the cross-functional product team breaks its daily development work into two tracks: discovery and...
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
The Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is an agile framework that addresses the entire project lifecycle and its impact on the business. Like the...
Engineering Backlog
The engineering backlog lists and prioritizes the stories, epics, and/or initiatives that are to be worked on by the engineering team for a given...
Engineering Backlog
What is an Engineering Backlog? A backlog is any list of unfinished, actionable tasks to be completed to achieve a strategic goal. The product...
Enterprise Architecture Planning
What is Enterprise Architecture? Enterprise architecture is a strategic and comprehensive blueprint for how IT infrastructure will be used across an organization to help...
Enterprise Architecture Roadmap
What is an Enterprise Architecture Roadmap? An enterprise architecture roadmap is a strategic blueprint that communicates how a company’s IT plans will help the...
Epic
An epic, like a theme, is typically a group of features or stories with a common strategic goal. Note that an epic is one...
eXtreme Programming (XP)
What is eXtreme Programming? eXtreme Programming (XP) is an agile framework that emphasizes both the broader philosophy of agile—to produce higher-quality software to please...
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
What is Feature Driven Development? (FDD) Feature Driven Development (FDD) is an agile framework that, as its name suggests, organizes software development around making...
Fibonacci Agile Estimation
Fibonacci agile estimation refers to using this sequence as the scoring scale when estimating the effort of agile development tasks.
General Availability (GA)
What is General Availability? General Availability (GA) is the release of a product to the general public. When a product reaches GA, it becomes...
Iteration
What is Iteration? In agile software development, an iteration is a set amount of time reserved for development. Typical iterations last 1-2 weeks, however,...
Jira
What Is Jira? Jira is a software application used for issue tracking and project management. The tool, developed by the Australian software company Atlassian,...
Lean Software Development
What is Lean Software Development (LSD)? Lean Software Development (LSD) is an agile framework based on optimizing development time and resources, eliminating waste, and...
LeSS (Large Scale Scrum)
Large scale Scrum (LeSS) is a scaled-up version of the traditional, one-team Scrum. LeSS uses many principles of the Scrum agile framework but with...
Pair Programming
Pair programming is an agile software development practice in which two programmers team up at one workstation to maximize efficiency. With pair programming, one...
Pair Programming
What Is Pair Programming? Pair programming is a practice in agile software development where two programmers share a workstation. This includes a single computer....
PDCA Cycle
What Is the PDCA Cycle? The PDCA cycle is a project management framework that businesses can use to implement incremental change. PDCA stands for...
PERT Chart
What Is a PERT Chart? A PERT chart is a visual project management tool used to map out and track the tasks and timelines....
Product Backlog
What is the Product Backlog? Definition: A product backlog lists and prioritizes the task-level details required to execute on the strategic plan set forth...
Product Development Cycle
What Is the Product Development Cycle? The product development cycle is the process of taking a product from an idea through its market release...
Product Development Manager
What is a Product Development Manager? A Product Development Manager (PDM)—often a software engineer, QA tester, or UX designer—is responsible for identifying new opportunities...
Product Development Process
What Is the Product Development Process? The product development process encompasses all steps needed to take a product from concept to market availability. This...
Rapid Application Development (RAD)
What is Rapid Application Development (RAD)? Rapid Application Development is an agile framework focused primarily on rapid prototyping of software products, frequently iterating based...
Rapid Experimentation
Rapid experimentation is an agile approach to the product development process. With this approach, frequent experiments are deployed in an attempt to discover new,...
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping is an agile strategy used throughout the product development process. With this approach, 3-dimensional prototypes of a product or feature are created...
Release Demo
What is a Release Demo? Definition: A release demo is typically given by agile teams at the end of a sprint. These demos are...
Release Management
What Is Release Management? Release management is one of those modern business terms that has several meanings. For IT departments, the term describes overseeing...
Retrospective
A retrospective is a meeting held after a product ships to discuss what happened during the product development and release process, with the goal...
Roadmap Revolution
What is the Roadmap Revolution? A roadmap revolution is a complete re-evaluation of a product roadmap, commonly conducted at the beginning of the year....
Scaled Agile Framework
What is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)? The Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe, methodology is an agile framework for development teams built on three...
Scrum Agile Framework
What is Scrum Agile Framework? In an agile context, Scrum is an approach to project management. Typically the Scrum agile framework favors moving projects...
Scrum Master
A scrum master is a facilitator for an agile team working under the scrum methodology. The scrum master serves as a point person responsible...
Scrum Meeting
What Is a Scrum Meeting? Scrum is an agile framework that teams use to produce products faster by breaking large development projects into smaller...
Scrumban
What Is Scrumban? Scrumban is a project management framework that combines important features of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. The Scrumban framework...
Shape Up Method
What is the Shape Up Method? The Shape Up Method describes the specific processes used by product development teams to shape, bet, and build...
Shipyard Engine
What is a Shipyard Engine? A shipyard engine describes a product team’s process to keep its organization informed about the frequent updates the team...
Sprint
What is an Agile Sprint? In agile methodology, a sprint is a period (e.g., 14 days) in which an agreed-upon set of development tasks...
Sprint Backlog
What is a Sprint Backlog? A sprint backlog is the set of items that a cross-functional product team selects from its product backlog to...
Sprint Goal
What is a Sprint Goal? In the scrum methodology for agile, sprint goals are clear objectives set before the beginning of a sprint. They...
Sprint Planning
What is Sprint Planning? In the Scrum agile framework, a sprint planning meeting is an event that establishes the product development goal and plan...
Standup
What is a Standup? A daily standup is a quick session where each member of the team shares what they accomplished yesterday, what they’ll...
Story Point
What is a Story Point? A story point is a unit of measurement used by development teams to estimate the amount of effort required...
Tribe Model Management
What is Tribe Model Management? Tribe model management is part of an agile scaling strategy first used to help Spotify’s growing development department. The...
User Story
A user story is a small, self-contained unit of development work designed to accomplish a specific goal within a product. A user story is...
Velocity
Velocity is a metric used to measure the speed of a development team’s delivery for a given cycle. Velocity is a calculation of the...
Working Backwards (the Amazon Method)
What Is the Amazon Working Backwards Method? The Amazon working backward method is a product development approach that starts with the team imagining the...
