Agile Glossary

The notion in psychology that the human brain is capable of maintaining 7 +/- 2 pieces at a time for immediate recall. This principle is also applied to the ideal number of team members on a cross-functional team, such that, by keeping team size in this range, it is possible for every person on the team to be reasonably familiar with what every other member of the team is working on, and to potentially assist one or more team members.

The smallest usable deliverable that can serve as a means of validating the idea behind a business or product. The first increment of the build/measure/learn cycle, it can help demonstrate that the market exists for a particular idea. What often gets lost is the "minimalist" aspect; all that is necessary from a delivery perspective might be something as simple a landing page, or a service with an appearance of automation, but which is fully manual behind the scenes, which is sufficient for customers to interact with, so that it is possible to observe their behavior with the product or service. Seeing what people actually do with a product is much more reliable than asking people what they would do.