As an author
I want to: define the Agile terms used in these chapters, and other terms that may also need definition.
So that: as the reader absorbs the material, it is more easy to create a mental picture as to what is being discussed.
Agile Coach: An Agile evangelist whose role is to guide AgileScrumTeams in the correct use of Agile within an organization.
Acceptance Criteria: This is the list of new ProductOwner expectations as they relate to a single User Story.
Agile Life Cycle Management tool (ALCM): All information relevant to the project is stored on this software tool. For example, it houses User Stories and their metadata. These can typically generate custom reports which provide transparency.
AgileScrumTeam: This is composed of the ProductOwner, the BuildTeam, and the ScrumMaster. These teams have between five and nine members and stay together for a very long time.
ALCM: See Agile Life Cycle Management tool.
Backlog: This is the repository where User Stories are placed before they are selected to be worked on. Once a User Story on the Backlog is groomed, it can be requested by a team member to be worked on. When a User Story is selected to be worked on, it is moved to the Iteration-Backlog.
Backlog Grooming (this is a Ceremony): The process of massaging User Stories in the Backlog in order to make sure User Stories in the Backlog are the correct format for a User Story. The people attending the Backlog Grooming Ceremony must also determine if all needed information is supplied within the User Story so they can mark a User Story Ready for being considered for a candidate for Iteration Planning. If a User Story is too big to fit in an Iteration, it is decomposed/broken-up into smaller User Stories.
BuildTeam: This is composed of the DevelopmentTeam and the TestTeam.
Burn down Chart: This is a graph that shows the difference between how many hours the team has used and how many hours the team should have burned up based on daily velocity, where in this case, velocity is expressed in hours. Hours spent on a task are to be updated daily in the ALCM in order to have this chart be current for discussion at the daily standup. This chart can be expressed in hours, Story Points, or both.
Classic Project Management: Synonymous with “Waterfall.” Please see “Waterfall” in this glossary.
Daily Standup (this is a Ceremony): A ceremony in which all team members attend each working day. Four questions are to be answered: (1) What have you done since the last daily standup? (2)What have you planned before the next standup? (3) Do you have any impediments? and (4) Did you update the ALCM? This meeting appears to be constructed to allow peer pressure to encourage each person on the AgileScrumTeam to work at a sustainable, optimal pace.
Deliverable: A work product that is known to satisfy all relevant requirements, acceptance criteria, and test cases.
Done: This term is to be defined by the AgileScrumTeam based on its processes, environment, and needs. In general, it means that the ProductOwner has approved the story and it has been reviewed during a Demo. (Please see “Done–Done” in this glossary).
Done–Done: This term is to be defined by the AgileScrumTeam based on its processes, environment, and needs. The definition the team uses is to be stored in the Social Contract, which is stored in the ALCM. In general, a “Done–Done” User Story has been deployed into the production environment and is ready for the end user to use in day-to-day processes.
Demo (a ceremony): Slang for the ceremony called “Demonstration.” See “Demonstration.”
Demonstration (a ceremony): The work product relating to all User Stories that have completed in the current iteration are celebrated in the presence of the ProductOwner. Occasionally, a User Story is approved during the Demonstration, but this is to be avoided.
Detectability: The ability to identify a defect which is present.
DevelopmentTeam: These are the people who create the working code. They typically do unit testing, and run any code validation software. This does not include those who are dedicated to testing.
Duration: The number of calendar working days a task takes to get done. This includes breaks, idle time etc. For example, if a human resource spends 4.5 hours on a task across 3 days, then the duration is 3 days. Also see “effort hours.”
General Contractor: The person is in charge of a construction project. In this text, this is the same as a ScrumMaster or a project manager.
Grooming: The activities that take place during a Backlog Grooming Ceremony.
Effort Hours: Hours spent specifically on a task.
Epic Level User Story: Reveals the objective of the project to be undertaken by the AgileScrumTeam. These are decomposed to provide better meaning and direction to the BuildTeam.
Iteration: A time period, typically 2 to 4 weeks long, during which committed User Stories are completed.
Iteration Backlog: This is where User Stories originally located in the Backlog are moved to when they are to be worked on during the upcoming Iteration.
Iteration Planning (a ceremony): If the metadata on a User Story in the backlog is sufficient, and it has the highest priority, and a BuildTeam member asks to work on it, then it is moved to the Iteration Backlog. Once on the Iteration Backlog, the work effort is considered to be committed work for the current Iteration.
Methodology: A process which guides a development team as it creates a work product.
Metadata: Data that further defines other data. For example, say you own 20 clothes-washers. On a database, you may keep data about each of your clothes-washers like hours out of service per month, capacity of the machine, gallons of water per use, and money collected per day etc.
Opportunity Cost: Occasionally, selecting one course of action precludes taking up other activities. The activities you can no longer take action on are the “cost” in opportunity cost.
Parking Lot (a ceremony): This ceremony immediately follows the Daily Standup. All pressing issues are to be brought up and discussed until they are resolved or actionable. It is 15 minutes long; so people have to choose carefully what to talk about and how long they talk for. Items that do not fit into the 15-minute time slot can be moved to their own meeting forum later in the near future (Comment: most texts do not refer to the Parking Lot as a ceremony yet).
Pivot User Story: The establishment of a User Story that is of average size. When Story Pointing, all items that undergo Story Point are given an estimate relative to this User Story.
ProductOwner: The person who:
• Works to understand the needs, pains, and desires of the ultimate consumer of the value of an application.
• Expresses the needs of this community in words that are in User Story format.
• Populates most User Stories on to the Backlog.
• Prioritizes User Stories on the Backlog.
• Accepts the Work-Product that is created based on User Story’s “ask.”
• Assists in creating Acceptance Criteria and Test Cases.
• Answers questions relating to any aspect of a User Story.
Project: A nonrepetitive, well-defined, time-boxed, and finite effort to meet the documented needs of a stakeholder community and is unique to the performing organization (This definition is from an unpublished work of Brian Vanderjack’s © 2007, used with permission).
Project Charter: Identifies the high-level deliverable of a project. It is signed by an executive with enough powers to:
• Protect the project team from external adversity and company politics.
• Push-needed initiatives related to the project.
• Be a friendly escalation point when a team has an issue it cannot react to.
• Maintain interest in the effort with other vitally needed executives.
• Keep track of project via reports supplied by the ScrumMaster project manager.
• Understand what the organization actually needs to get done.
It is to have enough information to start and keep the project going, but not so much that it proves to be an obstacle. The Epic User Story should directly flow from this document.
Ready: This is a flag (AKA indicator) on each User Story in the ALCM. Its presence indicates a User Story that has been successfully groomed, and it is “ready” to be selected into an Iteration.
Requirement: A description of a feature, function, or process related to an application. Typically these are grouped together in a meaningful narrative called a “requirements document.”
Retrospective (an Agile Ceremony): It is a formal meeting scheduled at the end of each Iteration. All members of the AgileScrumTeam meet together and formally determine what went well and what did not go so good during the past Iteration. If the team agrees to try to fix an issue shared during a retrospective, then a User Story is to be created to ensure that the item is not forgotten.
Story Point: An early estimate applied to a User Story that is simply a representation of relative size. Typically the estimate is based on a simplified Fibonacci Sequence (1,2,3,5,8,13,21…) or tee-shirt size (XS, S, M, L, XL). Also see Velocity.
Task: A special case of the User Story. It is what the developers and testers create to support their specific work. It is the decomposition of a User Story, and it is not decomposed by itself. This is where effort hours—that is, hours-on-task—are logged. This entity does not necessarily follow the User Story format.
Team Building: A method used to increase trust, communication, and productivity amongst team members through artificially amplifying the intensity and duration of collaboration on a predefined activity across a relatively short duration of time. The typical team building method is to perform a shared activity.
Test Plans: A description of one or more input values or conditions into a program, application, or system. The input(s) trigger(s) a behavior. This is the description of the input(s) and the expected behavior(s).
Time-Box: When a team is committed to starting and ending an activity at an agreed-upon time.
User: The ultimate customer(s) of the functionality of the computer application. They are typically the ones whose wants and needs are addressed by the ProductOwner writing User Stories.
User Story: A statement that is very similar to a requirement. It is written in this format: “As a,” “I want,” and “So that.” User Stories are prioritized and reside in the “Backlog” or “Iteration Backlog.” Metadata associated with the User Story also includes release, need-by data, who has ownership etc.
User Story Backlog: See “Backlog.”
Velocity: The total number of Story Points that an AgileScrumTeam agrees to work on during an Iteration while maintaining a sustainable pace.
Vision: A view of the future as held by the leader(s) of an organization. When correctly employed, all assets of the company are to be in full support of advancing the cause.
Visioning: The process of turning User-Needs/Requirements into User Stories for immediate placement on the Backlog. If the priority is high enough, the User Stories will be moved to an Iteration Backlog. When first entered into the Backlog, they are neither sized nor prioritized. Little or no metadata will be present when entered.
Vision Meeting (a ceremony): This ceremony can take place at any time, and as often as is necessary, to capture wants and needs in the form of User Stories. When there is enough known about the request to build a User Story, a new entry is placed on the backlog.
Waterfall: This is the predecessor of AgileScrum. It is characterized by a predominantly linear approach to completing projects.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Looks like an organization chart or an outline. When in an organization-chart format, the top node identifies the project objective. The project objective is repeatedly decomposed into smaller project objectives. The “terminal nodes of a WBS” is the work package; these are what a project manager manages too. There can be many levels in a WBS. Work packages are the most narrowly defined items on the WBS, and they inhabit the lowest, most detailed level.
Work-product: It is the result of an effort to meet a requirement.