Agile Glossary

Browse 39 agile terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

39 Agile Terms

Agile Coach
A person who helps teams adopt or improve agile practices such as retrospectives, planning, standups, and delivery processes. In tech culture the term can be...
Agile Estimation
The practice of estimating work in agile environments, often using relative sizing, story points, or lightweight forecasting instead of exact hour counts....
Agile Manifesto
A 2001 declaration by seventeen software developers — including Kent Beck, Martin Fowler, and Robert C. Martin — establishing four core values (individuals...
Async Standup
A standup process done through written updates rather than a live meeting, often in chat or a dedicated tool. Async standups are common in distributed teams...
Backlog
An ordered list of work items (features, bugs, technical debt) awaiting implementation. In Scrum, the Product Backlog is the single source of requirements. In...
Backlog Grooming
The process of reviewing, organizing, clarifying, splitting, or reprioritizing backlog items so future work is easier to plan. The term is still common, though...
Burndown Chart Lie
A joking phrase for a burndown chart that gives the impression of smooth progress even though the underlying work is blocked, redefined, or being gamed. It...
Cooldown Sprint
A lighter sprint scheduled after an intense push, used for cleanup, debt work, and recovery.
Daily Standup
A short recurring team meeting, usually daily, where people share progress, plans, and blockers. In tech culture daily standups are common but frequently...
Definition of Done
A shared, explicit checklist of criteria that must be met before a work item is considered complete. Typically includes: code reviewed, tests passing,...
Emergent Design
A style of design in which structure and solutions evolve through iterative work and learning rather than being fully specified upfront. In software culture...
Epic
A large body of work or planning unit that groups related stories, tasks, or features under a broader goal. In workplace culture epics help organize roadmaps,...
Kanban Board
A visual workflow board that tracks work items as they move through stages such as To Do, In Progress, Review, and Done. In software teams it is used to limit...
Lame Duck Sprint
A sprint that has little real momentum because a release, reorg, holiday, or major decision has already made the iteration effectively provisional.
Rally
A software planning and project-tracking tool, historically used in enterprise agile environments under names such as CA Agile Central. In workplace slang,...
Retro
Short for 'retrospective' — a team meeting at the end of a sprint to discuss what went well, what didn't, and what to improve. The therapy session of agile...
Retro Meeting
A retrospective meeting where a team reflects on what went well, what failed, and what to change next time.
Retro Slang
A casual use of 'retro' to mean any retrospective conversation about what just happened, even outside formal agile meetings. It reflects how team-process...
Retrospective
A recurring team meeting at the end of an iteration or project where participants reflect on what went well, what went wrong, and what to improve in the next...
Scrum
Scrum is an agile framework for managing and completing complex projects, most commonly used in software development. It organizes work into fixed-length...
Scrum Master
The facilitator role in Scrum responsible for helping the team follow the process, remove blockers, and improve how work flows through ceremonies and planning....
Spike
A time-boxed research task in Agile development aimed at reducing uncertainty before committing to a full implementation. The output is knowledge (a proof of...
Sprint
A fixed time period (typically 1-4 weeks) in Scrum during which a team commits to completing a set of work items. The irony of calling it a 'sprint' when it...
Sprint Burndown Anxiety
Stress caused by watching sprint burndown charts and feeling pressure when the line does not move as management expects.
Sprint Planning
The meeting or process where a team decides what work to take into an upcoming sprint and how it will be approached. Good sprint planning aligns scope,...
Sprint Retrospective
A recurring reflection meeting where a team reviews what went well, what did not, and what to improve after a sprint. Its value depends heavily on whether the...
Sprint Velocity
The average number of story points (or units of work) a team completes per sprint, used for forecasting future capacity. Should stabilize over time as...
Sprint Zero
An initial setup period before normal sprint work begins, usually used for planning, tooling, staffing, or environment prep.
Standup
A brief daily team meeting (ideally standing, hence the name) where everyone shares what they did yesterday, what they'll do today, and any blockers. Supposed...
Standup Comedy
A joking term for daily standups that become performative, rambling, or more about appearances than coordination.
Standup Meeting
A short recurring team meeting, often daily, where people share status, blockers, and immediate plans. Originally meant to be brief and coordination-focused,...
TDD
Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a software development discipline built on a short, repeating cycle called red-green-refactor. First, write a failing test...
Technical Spike
A time-boxed investigation to answer a technical question or reduce uncertainty before committing to an implementation approach. Produces knowledge (proof of...
Three Amigos Meeting
A planning or clarification meeting that brings together representatives such as product, engineering, and QA to align on a story before implementation.
User Story
A short, informal description of a software feature written from the perspective of an end user, typically following the template: 'As a [type of user], I want...
Velocity
In Agile/Scrum, the amount of work a team completes in a sprint, measured in story points or other units. Used for forecasting capacity, not as a performance...
Velocity Obsession
An unhealthy fixation on output speed or story points that can distort incentives and reduce code quality or long-term effectiveness.
Waterfall Hangover
The lingering habits of heavy sequential planning and gatekeeping that remain even after a team claims to have become agile.
XP
Short for Extreme Programming, the agile methodology emphasizing short feedback loops, pair programming, testing, simplicity, and continuous integration. The...

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