Glossary

Agile
A software development framework where teams develop increments with short cycle times by pulling work from queues at a pace they decide.
Agile Roadmap
A database containing Investment schedules and features that can be quickly adapted to development effort changes.
Agile Technology Roadmap
A component of the Agile roadmap that identifies the dependencies and target completion dates to make new technology available for implementation in an Investment.
API
Application Programming Interface. Documented software interfaces exposing functionality that can be used by other programmers.
Appraisal
The software development cost associated with effort to detect defects in a development artifact. Used in the Cost of Quality model.
Assumption Validation
Creation of test plans to verify critical product assumptions prior to development to avoid product failures.
B – B
Business to Business. A business model where other companies are customers.
B – C
Business to Consumer. A business model where the product or services are purchased by individuals.
Balance Sheet
A business financial report that estimates the total value of a company.
Behavior
Action by a person that can be observed.
Bundling
Inclusion of multiple Investments within a release.
Burndown Chart
A graph that shows the progress of an Agile team toward completion of a release.
Business Plan
A detailed plan that shows actions and responsibilities to achieve business objectives.
CoD
Cost of Delay. The income or profit lost by delaying a software project by a unit of time.
Cone of Uncertainty
A characteristic curve that shows how software estimation accuracy varies depending on the development phase in which estimates are made.
Consequences
The impact on an individual after performing a behavior.
Constrainer
Individuals or groups who can constrain product requirements that can affect the success of a product.
Continuous Delivery (CD)
Customer software is updated when value is available instead of having to wait for periodic releases.
Cost of Quality
The money that a company invests to ensure product quality.
Culture
A set of behaviors effectively reinforced throughout an organization that determines commonly observed behaviors.
Cycle Time
The time from the start of development of an Investment until it could potentially be released.
Cycle Time Reduction Factor
The ratio of current release cycle time to a reduced cycle time.
DevOps
Investments in resources and tools to reduce development and deployment durations to reduce cycle time.
Epic
A problem to be solved in software.
Feature
An increment of software functionality with benefits understood by business and technical product development participants.
Feature‐Based Planning
Features defined as a first step in product or release planning.
Five Whys
A structured quality analysis method to identify root causes.
Flat File
A spreadsheet or Comma Separated Values (CSV) file that maintains relationships among elements.
FTE
Full‐Time Equivalent – The hours an individual would contribute each week to a project if they were 100% dedicated to the project.
Functional Testing
Verification of software against a set of functional requirements.
Go‐to‐Market Plan
The tasks, responsibilities, and dependencies necessary to market and sell a product.
Headcount
The number of individuals working on a project.
Income Statement
A financial report that shows company income and profit.
Initiative
A plan to achieve a business objective.
Innovation
A nonobvious improvement provided by a product, process, or solution that results in a notable increase in product stakeholder value.
Integration Testing
Verification of interfaces among unit tested software components.
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
The discount rate that makes Net Present Value zero in a discounted cash flow analysis.
Investment
The smallest increment of software functionality with the potential to increase income if it could be released. A capital “I” is used to distinguish it from general investments.
Investment Backlog
A set of Investments prioritized with consideration of potential near‐term income based on Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF).
Investment Team
A cross‐functional team responsible for achieving the business and technical objectives of an Investment.
Kanban
A manufacturing method to limit Work in Process (WIP). Also, an Agile software development method that limits WIP.
Key Performance Indicator
A measure that represents the state of a key
(KPI)
business result.
Logistics Curve
A characteristic growth curve often found in business and nature. Also known as an S‐curve.
Microservices
A software architectural style that structures an application as a set of services defined by an API.
Minimal Marketable
A small increment of software functionality
Feature Set (MMFS)
functionality that delivers value to customers.
Minimum Viable Product
A small increment of a software product
(MVP)
deployed to learn more about the product.
Motivation
The desire to perform a behavior.
Negative Reinforcement
A threat of punishment to increase a desired behavior.
Net Cost of Delay (Net CoD)
The money lost within a planning period by not being able to develop a set of software projects simultaneously because of resource or other constraints. Also known as the opportunity cost of prioritizing projects above others.
Net Present Value (NPV)
The value of money today that will be received in the future based on the potential value of that money considering future return rates.
Operations
Company departments responsible for providing goods and services to customers or other departments.
Payback Period
The time required by a product to pay back development cost.
Program Management
A company department staffed with project.
Office (PMO)
and/or program managers responsible for achieving project predictability in terms of schedule, cost, scope, and quality.
Profit and Loss Center
A subset of a company with accounting to
(P&L Center)
determine profit and loss.
Portfolio
The set of projects and related funding in which a company invests.
Positive Reinforcement
Applying a consequence wanted by an individual following a desired behavior.
Product Backlog
A prioritized list that determines the priority of development of software functionality.
Product Owner
A role in Scrum responsible for defining and prioritizing work for a Scrum team.
Product Stakeholder
Someone who receives benefit from your product.
Product Stakeholder Analysis
Identification of the value a product stakeholder obtains from your product.
Production
Effort and cost in the Cost of Quality model that results in perceived product value.
Productivity
There are two types of productivity measures. The first is total productivity measured by Value Out/Value In. Unit productivity counts the rate at which “units” are produced.
Program
A plan to achieve a company objective.
Proxy Business Case
An example business case prepared by an Investment team to learn how the purchase of their Investment can be justified by customers.
Punishment
Applying an unwanted consequence to stop or reduce a behavior.
Recognition
Positive acknowledgment of a desired behavior.
Regression Test
A set of software tests executed to verify that previously tested functionality works correctly.
Release
Software deployed that contains one or more Investments, features, or other functionality.
Release Opportunity Cost
The Net Cost of Delay of completed Investments awaiting release.
Release Overhead Cost
Fixed costs associated with regression testing and release deployment.
Return on Investment (ROI)
The ratio of profit returned within a specific period and the cost of the investment.
Reward
A gift with tangible value given to an individual to encourage the individual and others to repeat the desired behavior.
Rework
Effort and cost in the Cost of Quality Model for correcting defects found in design artifacts or code.
Roadmap
A multi‐year plan for the output of product development.
S‐Curve
A characteristic growth curve often found in business and nature. Also known as a logistics curve.
Sales
The department responsible for selling a product.
Scaled Agile Framework
A popular software development framework
(SAFe)
used for multi‐team Agile projects.
Scrum
An Agile method where teams build short increments of usable functionality under the guidance of a product owner.
Service‐Oriented
A software architecture that provides access to
Architecture (SOA)
data in an enterprise application.
Software Inventory
The capital cost tied up in Investments prior to release.
Sprint
A periodic software increment planned and developed by a Scrum team.
Sprint Backlog
The set of prioritized user stories to be included in the next sprint.
Sprint Retrospective
A team review after each sprint to determine ways to increase Scrum efficiency and effectiveness.
Sprint Review
A review of sprint functionality to declare it “done” or to provide corrections or improvements.
Stakeholder Value
A desired benefit of a product stakeholder.
Strategic Investment
An Investment with a payback greater than three years.
Support & Maintenance
The portion of R&D budget allocated to correct defects and maintain product viability.
System Testing
Verification of a release against system non‐functional requirements.
T‐Shirt Sizing
A prioritization method where business value and effort are independently rated based on T‐shirt sizes.
Tactical Investment
An Investment with a payback of three or less years.
Timebox
A target cycle time of an Investment.
Top‐Down Estimation
Software estimation techniques that can be used prior to software decomposition and design.
Unit Testing
A set of tests created by a developer to achieve a level of code coverage.
Use Case
A software design element used in structured requirements analysis.
User Scenario
A description of a single user interaction with the system from initial to end state.
User Story
An expression of a user need in Scrum in a specific format that can be implemented in a single sprint.
Variable Content
The ability to trade‐off functionality to maintain an Investment schedule.
Waterfall
A traditional software development framework where release requirements are created in the initial planning phase.
Waterfall Planning
Retention of fixed schedule, content, and resources characteristic of Waterfall.
Weighted Shortest Job First
A software project prioritization method
(WSJF)
determined by Cost of Delay/Cycle Time that optimizes the income for a set of projects.
Work in Process (WIP)
The cost invested in partially completed Investments.
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