Agile Glossary

In a more formal sense, an eXtreme Programming (XP) practice, where two people work closely together, where they take turns writing code (the Driver) and reviewing and testing the code (the Navigator). Also, in a less formal sense, any time two team members work together such that the overall quality of the solution they produce is better than what would be possible if they worked alone, resulting in a lower chance that rework will be needed, either in the form of fixing defects or refactoring.

A technique that helps ensure conversations stay focused on accomplishing one or more specific objectives, by deferring discussion of any topics that do not directly contribute to accomplishing those objectives to a later time. Typically, a visible space is marked as a Parking Lot, and attendees add any out-of-scope topics to the Parking Lot, as they arise. A facilitator often helps curate the items as they are added to the Parking Lot, and works with the attendees to reach agreement on how to handle those items before the close of the meeting, either by discussing one or more of them (time permitting), and/or by agreeing on next steps for any items that could not be addressed during the meeting.

Plan, Do, Check, and Act, a cyclical method of performing work and receiving feedback on the work. Incorporates feedback loops to reinforce an empirical process, which focuses on inspection and adaptation instead of following a comprehensive, fully defined plan, where that plan is established up front and adhered to regardless of the outcomes or discoveries along the way.

To determine how many lines of communication exist between one node (person) and every other node in a group of people, the Permutation Formula shows that as team size increases, the lines of communication increase geometrically, to the point where effective 1:1 communication and team collaboration on a regular basis becomes not only difficult, but less effective. It is for this reason that the size of Agile teams most often falls in a range that falls between about 4 and 9. (Drawing a series of dots to represent each node of communication, that is, each team member, and connecting those dots, is also an effective way to illustrate this concept.)

A detailed biography/profile of fictitious user of a product, which is concise and visual. A common layout is a single page including a photograph (often a simple depiction, such as a cartoon), and a name and social or professional details: “Fred Rogers, 53, former host of a popular television show for children.”Because a software product is often intended for use by more than one type of person, with potentially different preferences and expectations, the team might choose to create one persona for each user category it deems important for the product.

A consensus-based technique where a team uses a physical deck of "planning poker" cards (or a proxy for physical cards) to agree on relative sizing of work items. Each team member reveals the value of the card representing their idea of relative size at the same time, at which time the team discusses outliers and votes again, if necessary. By hiding the chosen values until everyone is ready, the team can avoid the cognitive bias of anchoring, where the first number spoken aloud can set a precedent for subsequent estimates.

The way in which a principle is supported or realized via demonstration or actualization. For example, in Scrum, the principle of demonstrating progress is supported by the Sprint Review practice. Similarly, in Extreme Programming (XP), there are multiple technical practices that realize various Agile principles.

A list of the new features, changes to existing features, bug fixes, infrastructure changes or other activities that a team may deliver to achieve a specific outcome, such as the creation of a new product or modifications to an existing product. The Product Backlog is the single authoritative source for things that a team works on. Inclusion of a work item in a Product Backlog means that it is an option the team has for delivering a specific outcome; at any point a work item could be removed from a Product Backlog or deprioritized. The work items in a Product Backlog can vary considerably in size and also how well articulated they are, where more time is spent preparing the highest-priority work items, which are likely to be worked on sooner, than it is on items that are lower in priority. See also Sprint Backlog.

An individual with the authority to set the direction for a product, or a family of products, using analytical methods such as market research, trend analysis, and structured or unstructured interviews and other forms of interaction with individual customers or a sample of the customer population. As such, Product Managers set strategy and vision for the product(s) under their purview, and partner with others to make sure work done on the product(s) aligns with the organizational mission and vision, and is correctly prioritized with competing streams of work on other products.

The empowered central point of product leadership at the team level, and one of the three roles on a Scrum team, the PO acts as the single voice of the stakeholder community to the Scrum team. Key responsibilities include ensuring that the product vision, goals, and scope are clear, setting the priority for work that the team does, and providing formal acceptance of individual work items.

A person who is responsible for helping coordinate the activities associated with the planning, procurement and execution of a project, where a project is generally understood to be any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start, and a defined finish. It is common for Project Managers to be an initial point of contact for any issues or discrepancies associated with the work being done on the project; rather than participating directly in the activities that produce the end result, Project Managers focus on keeping track of project progress, focusing primarily on reducing the risk of project failure, maximizing project benefits, and minimizing project costs. It is important to point out that PMs work outside the context of Agile teams; for example, the responsibilities of Scrum Masters and Project Managers are significantly different, and a Scrum Master is a role on a Scrum Team, while a Project Manager is not a role on a Scrum Team.