Spike

Noun · Development

Definitions

  1. 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 concept, benchmark, or recommendation), not production code. Named after the XP practice of 'driving a spike through the system.'

    In plain English: A short research task to figure out the best approach before actually building something.

    Example: "Let's do a 2-day spike on WebSocket vs. SSE for real-time updates before we estimate the full feature."

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