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Agile Glossary and Reference Library

World’s Largest Opinionated Agile Reference Library. The content is created and the links are curated through the lens of Agile Pain Relief Consulting’s view of what is effective in the practice of Scrum and Agile. We don’t accept submissions, and emails to that effect are marked as spam. Book listings may use affiliate links that could result in a small commission received by us if you purchase, but they do not affect the price at all. From experience, this won’t amount to anything more than a cup of coffee in a year.

We’re always looking for all things Agile. As a result, we’ve amassed a large collection of information covering lots of practical topics, techniques, tips, and case studies which we believe may help you toward your Scrum/Agile goals. They have been curated and organized into one spot, to share with you to help you on your Agile journey. We routinely scan for broken links, but if you spot one before we do, please let us know.

  • SAFeScaled Agile Framework, aka SAFe, is probably the least Agile approach to getting many teams to work together. At the heart of all of Agile approaches has(...)
  • Safety CheckA team safety check is a way of understanding the team’s readiness to be open and honest. It starts with a question like “Are you able to be open and(...)
  • Scaled Agile FrameworkScaled Agile Framework, aka SAFe, is probably the least Agile approach to getting many teams to work together. At the heart of all of Agile approaches has(...)
  • Scaling and Large TeamsWhen attempting to get many teams to work effectively together in an Agile world, we need some coordination model. This is typically referred to as(...)
  • SCARF ModelThe SCARF Model of human behaviour is useful to understand how people respond to the world through the lenses of Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness,(...)
  • ScrumScrum is an approach to applying the Agile mindset. Scrum is a way of organizing a team of people to deliver incremental parts or features of a product(...)
  • ScrumMaster Anti-PatternsAn Anti-Pattern is a recurring pattern that frequently shows up, where the behaviour creates new problems somewhere else in the system. Example: the(...)
  • ScrumMaster RoleThe ScrumMaster is one of the more poorly-named aspects of Scrum. The intended meaning isn’t to imply a controller or giver of orders. Rather, a(...)
  • ScrummerfallAlias: Mini Waterfalls in Scrum A Scrum team should work on only a couple of Product Backlog Items (or User Stories) at a time. Most of the work should(...)
  • Scrum TeamThe Scrum Team is all of the people needed to get the product built and into the customer’s hands: ScrumMaster, who helps the team grow capacity to(...)
  • Scrum vs KanbanScrum is a tool that organizes a team to deliver value to a customer. Along the way, the team is expected to improve the product and also the way they(...)
  • Security in ScrumHow do we build Secure products in Scrum? In a world where the development team deliver value every Sprint, it is hard to see how to ensure products are(...)
  • Self-OrganizationA self-organizing team is one where team members make all relevant decisions on how to achieve their goals. Contrary to the beliefs some people hold,(...)
  • Self-Selecting TeamsThe default assumption when creating a new team is that the management and team leads will do the selecting and organizing. (Wait, team leads... are they(...)
  • Servant LeadershipServant leadership is the act of leading through service to others. Okay, so how does that differ from traditional leadership? Traditional leadership(...)
  • Skills MatrixCross-skilling is where a team member decides (without being pushed) to learn a new skill area. This learning will, of course, take time and in the short(...)
  • SlackSlack, in the context of Agile/Scrum, is when the time isn't solely focused on delivering. (It's important not to confuse this with Slack, a popular(...)
  • Software Engineering PracticesIn my workshops, I often have people who are focused on the question: “How can I help my team go faster?”, or “How can we deliver this Product sooner?”(...)
  • Special TeamsSometimes organizations form Special Teams assigned to tackle technical bugs or other challenges. Frequently, these special teams make the very problem(...)
  • Specification by ExampleBehaviour Driven Development (or BDD) is an approach that gets team members to collaborate on describing the behaviours of the user story or product(...)
  • Spotify ModelThe "Spotify Model" is often misunderstood and misapplied in organizations. It consists of Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds. Squads are like Scrum(...)
  • SprintA Sprint is a fixed period, ranging from one week to one month in length, during which the Scrum Team works to meet specific customer needs. As one Sprint(...)
  • Sprint BacklogThe Sprint Backlog is a list of Product Backlog Items (PBIs) the Team has committed to for the next Sprint. It is the Scrum Team’s plan for how to achieve(...)
  • Sprint BurndownBurndown charts graph work remaining vs time. They were originally used for tracking work in Sprints and across releases. Sprint Burndowns that track(...)
  • Sprint GoalSprint Goal is a single product objective shared by the Scrum Team that describes the purpose of the Sprint and ensures that everyone moves in the same(...)
  • Sprint LengthThe ScrumGuide says that Sprints "are fixed length events of one month or less to create consistency" and "When a Sprint’s horizon is too long the Sprint(...)
  • Sprint PlanningSprint Planning is an event at the beginning of a Sprint where the Team plans the items they can complete in the next Sprint. They also craft a Goal to(...)
  • Sprint RetrospectiveThe Sprint Retrospective is an event at the end of the Sprint where the Scrum Team reflects on all that happened in that period, with the intention to(...)
  • Sprint ReviewSprint Review is an event at the end of the Sprint where the Scrum Team review the completed work with stakeholders. Stakeholders provide feedback on the(...)
  • Stable TeamsA stable team is one in which team membership doesn’t change often and, instead, is consistent over time.  When team membership changes every few months,(...)
  • Story MappingA Story Map is a way to help visualize the flow or story of a product. Across the top or horizontal axis of the map we place the major steps (often(...)
  • Story SplittingUser Story Splitting is the art of splitting User Stories or Product Backlog Items (PBI) into smaller parts when an item is too big. My recommendation is(...)
  • StrategyIn traditional approaches, a Roadmap is a list of dates and promises that are being made to the customer. Traditional Roadmaps don’t work because there is(...)
  • SwarmingIf Pair Programming is two people working together on a single problem at the same time (pre-Covid, Pairing meant sitting side by side with one computer),(...)
  • Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking takes the view that any problem we're working on is part of a larger, interconnected system. Instead of making a quick fix, Systems(...)