Agile Expressions: A brief dictionary for New Practitioners

Agile methodology is a project management framework that breaks down projects into phases, or sprints. It’s an iterative process that emphasizes teamwork, flexibility, and customer satisfaction. Agile is a philosophy that prioritises adaptability, teamwork, and ongoing development rather than merely a process.

Agile project management uses a variety of terms, including sprints, burndown charts, and the backlog. Agile project management terms help teams work together and adapt to change, which can lead to better project outcomes.  Learning Agile’s jargon is crucial, regardless of your level of experience or desire to improve your comprehension.

The purpose of this dictionary is to guide novice practitioners through the fundamental ideas, jargon, and structures of Agile. You’ll be better able to collaborate and communicate effectively, as well as apply Agile principles to your projects, if you understand these phrases.

Agile Glossary: Essential Terms and Concepts

✅Agile Manifesto A foundational document in Agile methodology, the Agile Manifesto consists of four core values and twelve principles that guide Agile teams. It emphasizes individuals and interactions, working solutions, customer collaboration, and adaptability over rigid processes.

✅Agile Frameworks Different structured methodologies that follow Agile principles. Examples include Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).

✅Agile Coach An experienced professional who helps teams and organizations adopt Agile methodologies. They provide training, mentorship, and guidance to improve Agile practices.

✅Agile Release Train (ART) A concept from the SAFe framework representing a team of Agile teams working together to deliver solutions in a coordinated manner.

✅Backlog A prioritized list of tasks, features, or requirements that need to be completed. It is managed and refined throughout the project lifecycle.

• Product Backlog: A list of all desired product features maintained by the Product Owner.
• Sprint Backlog: A subset of the product backlog items selected for completion in a Sprint.

✅Burndown Chart A visual representation of work completed versus remaining work in a Sprint or project. It helps track progress and ensures teams stay on schedule.

✅Burnup Chart A chart that shows completed work over time, helping teams visualize scope changes and progress toward the final goal.

✅Continuous Integration (CI) A development practice where code changes are frequently merged into a shared repository, with automated testing ensuring early defect detection.

✅Continuous Deployment (CD) An extension of Continuous Integration where code changes are automatically deployed to production after passing tests.

✅Definition of Done (DoD) A set of criteria that a user story or task must meet before it is considered complete. It ensures quality and consistency across the team.

✅Definition of Ready (DoR) A checklist that defines when a user story is well-prepared for development, ensuring clarity and completeness before work begins.

✅Daily Stand-Up (Daily Scrum) A short daily meeting where team members provide updates on their work, discuss challenges, and align efforts for the day.

✅Epic A large user story that can be broken down into smaller stories or tasks. It represents high-level business requirements.

✅Extreme Programming (XP) An Agile framework emphasizing technical excellence, including practices like pair programming, test-driven development (TDD), and continuous integration.

✅Feature A high-level product capability that delivers value to users and can be further divided into user stories.

✅Feature Toggle A technique that allows teams to enable or disable features in production without deploying new code.

✅Fibonacci Sequence A numerical sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) used in Agile estimation to assign relative effort to tasks.

✅Flow Efficiency A metric that measures the ratio of value-adding time to the total cycle time of work items.

✅Increment A portion of the product that meets the Definition of Done and can be delivered to users.

✅Iteration A time-boxed period (usually 1–4 weeks) during which a team completes work on a set of user stories.

✅Kanban A visual Agile framework that emphasizes continuous flow, limiting work in progress (WIP) to improve efficiency.

✅Lead Time The time it takes from the moment a task is requested until it is completed and delivered.

✅Minimum Viable Product (MVP) A version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early users and provide feedback for future development.

✅MoSCoW Prioritization A technique for prioritizing requirements based on four categories: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won’t Have.

✅Pair Programming A development practice where two programmers work together on the same code at the same time.

✅Planning Poker An Agile estimation technique where team members assign effort values to user stories using numbered cards.

✅Product Owner (PO) A key role in Agile teams responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog based on customer needs.

✅Program Increment (PI) A time-boxed period (typically 8–12 weeks) in SAFe that includes multiple iterations and results in a significant product increment.

✅Retrospective A meeting held at the end of an iteration to reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve.

✅Scrum A widely used Agile framework with defined roles, events, and artifacts to facilitate iterative development.

✅Scrum Master A servant leader who ensures the team follows Scrum practices and removes impediments.

✅Sprint A fixed-length iteration (usually 1–4 weeks) where teams complete a set amount of work.

✅Sprint Planning A meeting where the Scrum Team selects work for the upcoming Sprint based on priority and team capacity.

✅Sprint Review A meeting at the end of a Sprint where the team showcases completed work to stakeholders.

✅Story Points A relative unit of measure used to estimate the effort required to complete a user story.

✅Swarming A technique where multiple team members collaborate on a single task to complete it faster.

✅Technical Debt The cost of taking shortcuts in development that may require additional work in the future.

✅Test-Driven Development (TDD) A development practice where tests are written before the code to improve quality.

✅Timebox A fixed duration assigned to an activity to ensure focus and efficiency.

✅User Story A short, simple description of a feature from the end user’s perspective. Example: “As a customer, I want to track my orders so that I can plan my deliveries.”

✅Velocity A measure of the amount of work a team completes in a Sprint, often measured in story points.

✅Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) A prioritization method that helps teams decide which work to do next based on urgency and value.

Conclusion

For each novice practitioner, learning Agile jargon is a prerequisite. You can work with teams more efficiently, communicate more clearly, and use Agile principles in practical projects if you comprehend these fundamental ideas. This dictionary will be a useful resource whether you’re working with Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, or XP.

There will be new words and methods as Agile develops further. For ongoing project and career progress, maintain your curiosity, never stop learning, and adopt an Agile mentality.