Book 15
Teams & Process
How software teams plan and ship work together: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, sprints, user stories and the rituals around them.
Contents
- 01Acceptance Criteria1Acceptance criteria are the specific, testable conditions a single user story or backlog item must meet before the Product Owner accepts it as complete.
- 02Agile2Agile is an approach to software development that delivers working software in small, frequent increments and adjusts plans based on regular feedback.
- 03Burndown Chart3A burndown chart is a graph that shows how much work remains in a sprint or release over time, so a team can see at a glance whether it is on track to finish.
- 04Bus Factor4The bus factor is the smallest number of people who would have to leave a project suddenly before it stalls because nobody left knows its critical parts.
- 05Code Smell5A code smell is a surface sign in code that often points to a deeper design problem, even though the code still works.
- 06Daily Standup6A daily standup is a short daily meeting, usually 15 minutes or less, where a team checks progress toward its goal, plans the day, and raises blockers.
- 07Definition of Done7The Definition of Done is a shared checklist of quality standards that every piece of work must meet before a team can consider it complete.
- 08Epic8An epic is a large body of work in Agile that is too big to finish in one sprint, so the team breaks it down into smaller user stories delivered over time.
- 09Extreme Programming9Extreme Programming is an Agile method built on engineering practices such as pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous integration.
- 10Kanban10Kanban is an Agile method that visualizes work on a board of columns and limits how many items can be in progress at once to keep work flowing smoothly.
- 11Lean Software Development11Lean software development applies lean manufacturing ideas to software, aiming to deliver customer value quickly by removing waste and improving flow.
- 12Mob Programming12Mob programming is a practice in which a whole team works on the same task, at the same time, on one shared computer, taking turns at the keyboard.
- 13MVPMinimum Viable Product13An MVP is the simplest version of a product that real users can use, built to test a key assumption and learn as much as possible with the least effort.
- 14Open Source14Open source software is software whose source code is published under a license that lets anyone use, study, modify and share it.
- 15Pair Programming15Pair programming is an Agile technique in which two developers work together on the same code, with one typing while the other reviews and guides the work.
- 16Planning Poker16Planning poker is a team estimation technique in which members privately pick estimate cards for a task, reveal them at once, then discuss the differences.
- 17Product Backlog17The product backlog is a single ordered list of everything a team might do to improve a product, such as features, fixes, and technical work.
- 18Product Owner18The Product Owner is the Scrum accountability responsible for maximizing a product's value by deciding what to build next and ordering the product backlog.
- 19Proof of ConceptPoC19A proof of concept (PoC) is a small, quick experiment built to show that an idea or technology can work in practice before investing in building it properly.
- 20Retrospective20A retrospective is a team meeting held at the end of each sprint to reflect on how the team worked and agree on concrete ways to improve next time.
- 21Scrum21Scrum is an Agile framework in which a small team delivers a product in fixed-length cycles called sprints, using defined roles, events, and artifacts.
- 22Scrum Master22The Scrum Master is the Scrum accountability that helps a team and its organization use Scrum well by coaching, facilitating events, and removing impediments.
- 23SDLCSoftware Development Life Cycle23The software development life cycle (SDLC) is the sequence of stages software goes through: planning, design, building, testing, release and maintenance.
- 24Software License24A software license is the legal permission that says how software may be used, modified and distributed; open source licenses can be permissive or copyleft.
- 25Spike25A spike is a short, timeboxed investigation an Agile team does to answer a question or reduce uncertainty before committing to build a feature.
- 26Sprint26A sprint is a fixed-length period of one month or less, often two weeks, in which a Scrum team works toward one goal and produces a usable product increment.
- 27Sprint Planning27Sprint planning is the Scrum event that starts each sprint, where the team agrees on a sprint goal, selects backlog items it can finish and plans the work.
- 28Story Points28Story points are a unit Agile teams use to estimate the relative size of work items, combining complexity, amount of work, and uncertainty rather than hours.
- 29Timeboxing29Timeboxing is setting a fixed maximum time for an activity in advance and stopping when it runs out, keeping work focused and forcing decisions about scope.
- 30User Story30A user story is a short, plain-language description of a feature told from the user's point of view, explaining who wants it, what they want, and why.
- 31Velocity31Velocity is the amount of work an Agile team completes in one sprint, usually the total story points of finished items, used to forecast future sprints.
- 32Waterfall32Waterfall is a sequential approach to software development in which requirements, design, building, testing, and release happen one after another.