Agile Methodology Glossary
Agile Methodology
Integration
“Integration” (or “integrating”) refers to any efforts still required for a project team to deliver a product suitable for release as a functional whole.
Agile Methodology
INVEST
The acronym INVEST stands for a set of criteria used to assess the quality of a user story. If the story fails to meet one of these criteria, the team may want to reword it.
Agile Methodology
Iteration
An iteration is a timebox during which development takes place. The duration may vary from project to project and is usually fixed.
Agile Methodology
Iterative Development
Agile projects are iterative insofar as they intentionally allow for “repeating” software development activities, and for potentially “revisiting” the same work products (the phrase “planned rework” is sometimes used; refactoring is a good example).
Agile Methodology
Kanban
The Kanban Method is a means to design, manage and improve flow for knowledge work and allows teams to start where they are to drive evolutionary change.
Agile Methodology
Kanban Board
A Kanban Board is a visual workflow tool consisting of multiple columns. Each column represents a different stage in the workflow process.
Agile Methodology
Lead Time
Lead Time is the time between a customer order and delivery. In software development, it can also be the time between a requirement made and its fulfillment.
Agile Methodology
Milestone Retrospective
A Milestone Retrospective is a team’s detailed analysis of the project’s significant events after a set period of time or at the project’s end.
Agile Methodology
Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF)
A Minimum Marketable Feature is a small, self-contained feature that can be developed quickly and that delivers significant value to the user.
Agile Methodology
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A Minimum Viable Product is, as Eric Ries said, the “version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”
Agile Methodology
Mob Programming
Mob Programming is a software development approach where the whole team works on the same thing, at the same time, in the same space, and at the same computer.
Agile Methodology
Mock Objects
Mock Objects (commonly used in the context of crafting automated unit tests) consist of instantiating a test-specific version of a software component.
Agile Methodology
Niko-niko Calendar
A Niko-niko Calendar is updated daily with each team member’s mood for that day. Over time the calendar reveals patterns of change in the moods of the team, or of individual members.
Agile Methodology
Open Space
In Open Space meetings, events, or conferences, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel sessions around a specific theme.
Agile Methodology
Pair Programming
Pair programming consists of two programmers sharing a single workstation (one screen, keyboard and mouse among the pair).
Agile Methodology
Personas
Personas are synthetic biographies of fictitious users of the future product.
Agile Methodology
Planning Poker
An approach to estimation used by Agile teams. Each team member “plays” a card bearing a numerical value corresponding to a point estimation for a user story.
Agile Methodology
Points (estimates in)
Agile teams generally prefer to express estimates in units other than the time-honored “man-hours.” Possibly the most widespread unit is “story points.”
Agile Methodology
Product Backlog
A product backlog is a list of the new features, changes to existing features, bug fixes, infrastructure changes or other activities that a team may deliver in order to achieve a specific outcome.
Agile Methodology
Product Owner
The product owner is a role created by the Scrum Framework responsible for making sure the team delivers the desired outcome.
Agile Methodology
Project Chartering
A high-level summary of the project’s key success factors displayed on one wall of the team room as a flipchart-sized sheet of paper.