Glossary

acceptance criteria — the concrete checks under a user story that define "done." The test plan in disguise.

backlog — the ordered list of everything that might get built. The product backlog is the wish list; the sprint backlog is this sprint's commitment.

burndown chart — a graph of remaining work over a sprint. Useful for the team; weaponized by bad managers.

cadence — the fixed rhythm of sprints. The regularity is the point — it forces demos and retros on schedule.

cargo-cult agile — performing the ceremonies without the thinking. Looks like agile from a distance; isn't.

cycle time — how long a Kanban item takes from started to done. Shorter and predictable beats heroic and erratic.

daily scrum — the 15-minute daily synchronization: what I did, what I'll do, what's blocking me. Not a status meeting.

definition of done — the shared, written checklist a piece of work must satisfy. Ends more arguments than any framework.

epic — a large outcome too big to estimate, split into stories. Months of work in a trench coat.

increment — the working, tested, potentially shippable output of a sprint.

INVEST — Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable: the checklist for a good user story.

Kanban — visualize the workflow, limit work in progress, manage flow. No sprints, no required roles.

planning poker — simultaneous-reveal team estimation. The conversation it forces is the point.

product owner — the one person who owns the what, the why, and the backlog order. One person, not a committee.

retrospective — the regular honest look at how the team works, ending in one owned change. The highest-leverage agile practice.

Scrum — sprints, three roles, four ceremonies, three artifacts. The most common framework; incomplete by design.

scrum master — owns the process and removes blockers. Not a manager, not a secretary.

sprint — a fixed-length iteration (1–4 weeks, usually 2) containing planning, work, review, and retrospective.

sprint review — the end-of-sprint demo of working software to stakeholders. Demos, not slides.

story points — relative effort estimates (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13). Team-specific by design.

throughput — Kanban items finished per week. The honest measure of capacity.

user story — a work item in user-voice form: "as a [who], I want [what] so that [why]." A placeholder for a conversation.

velocity — story points completed per sprint, averaged. A forecasting tool; a terrible performance metric.

waterfall — the old sequential model: requirements, design, build, test, in order. Works for bridges; fails for software.

WIP limit — the maximum items allowed in a Kanban column. The mechanism that forces finishing over starting.