This page collects a ton of standard industry terms and is intended as a reference. We have written these definitions for the both new readers and advanced. Many of the terms listed below are poorly defined in our industry. In our experience, half of the struggle for someone to understand scrum/agile is a stable language from which to base a discussion.

• Acceptance Criteria or Acceptance Tests

  Acceptance Criteria or Acceptance Tests form the base definition for a story and..

• Actionable Story

  An actionable story that is small, well- and ready to take to planning is an output of analysis. ... more

• Adaptive Planning

  One of the biggest problems that we encounter in software development is change. Adaptive Planning is a paradigm that ...

• Agile

  What is Agile? AGILE is being quick enough to avoid or take advantage of those things that can hurt or help in your pursuit.

• Agile Analysis

  What is agile analysis? Simple put,...

• Agile Development

  Agile is being quick enough to avoid or take advantage of those things that can hurt or hel...

• Agile Earned Value Metrics

  As long as the metrics are not used to drive performance but, instead used to understand throughput they can be a powerful aid.

• Agile Model

  What are the characteristics of a good agile model? In this post we identify 6

• Agile Scorecard

  Find out why agile scorecards are so hard to implement well. What are you measuring?

• Agility

  Agility: The act of basing actions on current reality, as opposed to ...

• Agreement

  An Agreement between the Product Owner and the rest of the Team that defines when a Story will be complete. The Agreement consists of the Acceptance Criteria, the Doneness Definition, and possibly additional General Agreements. This notion can be...

• Agreement Based Planning

  Agreement based planning is an alternative method to capacity based planning and involves the team in defining it's capacity through commitment to small pieces of work.

• Analysis

  Move your teams forward. The goal of analysis is to find opportunities to move. Great products are built this way.

• Architecture

  Architecture is the context within which particular stories are...

• Backlog

  The word backlog is used in scrum to describe two kinds of work. Work we are doing now "Sprint Backlog" and work we might...

• Capabilities

  What is a capability? Typically, open ended and fuzzy in scope. A system is made up of behavior that ca...

• Certified Scrum Developer

  The Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Developer CSD program is an intense training session for software development professionals.

• Certified Scrum Master

  Understand what a Certified Scrum Master is and which organizations offering this designation.

• Certified Scrum Professional

  We are excited to see... The designation of Certified Scrum Practicing has been changed to Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)...

• Code Viscosity

  Code Viscosity, generally referred to as Technical Debt. The word viscous is a good metaphor because...

• Commitment Based Planning

  Most teams doing agile never evolve past simple activity orientation. Great teams become riveted on establishing a commitment and finding a way to deliver.

• Distributed Agile Development

  Building and sustaining distributed agile development efforts requires a process that focuses on teams and building up their protocols one at a time.

• Distributed Agile Teams

  Distributed agile can work, but it is risky. Even more than traditional agile implementations, distributed teams tend to fall into two failure modes: “command as control” or team fragmentation.

• Information Radiator

  Getting the right information radiator can help you teams focus and succeed. Big visible display boards help people find where to spend energy.

• Make It Visible

  Self organization can occur when the work has enough visibility..This term was coined to described why agile team boards work in 2004 by Doug Shimp.

• Online IT Certification Training

  So, why is there so little emphasis on getting agile / scrum online IT certification training? Organizations are conducting their work this way

• Process Fog

  Process fog can be thought of as a reduction in visibility brought about by creating too much...

• Professional Scrum Training

  Professional Scrum Training from the Scrum Alliance is internationally recognized and community driven. The industries best training companies are selected...

• Scrum Agile Training

  Scrum or agile can dramatically increase the chances of success.

• Scrum Coach

  Although the role scrum coach is not called out formally in Scrum, ...

• Scrum Framework

  The Scrum Framework is ideally suited for complex efforts and requires discipline to execute.

• Scrum Methodology

  Scrum Methodology is a modern approach for developing complex products and often software products.

• Scrum Team

  The fundamental unit in Scrum is the team...

• Scrum Tools

  3 scrum tools to help manage workflow

• Scrum Training

  What kinds of Scrum training are there? How will I identify the good from the bad?

• ScrumMaster

  A good ScrumMaster or scrum master is someone who likes to work with people and can establish a pattern of continuous improvement.

• ScrumMaster Training

  Mastering Scrum requires more than a 2-day course can provide. Training can help you begin mastering scrum.

• Sprint Review

  Sprint Review is when the Product Owner and the Team show the team's results to their Stakeholders. There are a few reasons we do this...

• Stakeholders

  ... the most important role involved in a project effort is the Stakeholder, as the Stakeholders are the ones who have desires, wants, and needs,...

• Stories

  What are stories in scrum / agile development?

• Story Boss

  The Story boss is a temporary focus and can be applied to agile or Scrum ...

• Team Fragmentation

  occurs when there is a lack of unifying purpose in product development work....

• Team Swarm

  Great project management recognizes team swarm and is good a...

• Time Boxing

  Time boxing is a the closest thing in agile or scrum has to ...

• Transparency and Visibility for Better Engagement

  Transparency alone is that way. Too much of the wrong information and I cannot tell where to apply my energy. Everything is at the same level of visibility.

• What is Scrum

  What is scrum? Said succinctly, Scrum is a social agreement to be empirical as a team. Although that is succinct it does not explain the depth of complexity and difficulty is applying scrum to solve a problem. Scrum is a development philosophy th...

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