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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.