Agile to Waterfall Dictionary

September 14, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Agile Project Management

Agile to Waterfall Dictionary
By Mike Griffiths

A comprehensive list of Agile terms and their meanings in traditional (Waterfall) Project Management.

Adaptive - Frequently responding to changes and learning’s on a project by changing the plan, priorities, and/or approach. Agilists believe changes are good!

Agile Methods - A set of development methodologies characterized by being iterative, adaptive to changes and learning, value driven, low ceremony, and encouraging empowered teams.

Backlog – The prioritized list of stories, features, or requirements that the project works it’s way through. The closest thing to a list of requirements a traditional PM will find.

BDUF – Big Design Up Front a condescending term given to large efforts invested early in the project to define requirements or design before building some functionality and getting feedback from the user community.

Burn Down Graph – a project reporting trend graph popular in Scrum used to show the progressive reduction in features or estimated work remaining on the project.

Burn Up Graph – a project reporting trend graph that shows the total number of stories (or features) delivered to date on the project.

Continuous Integration – the process of building and testing the system upon the check-in of any code. Examples of continuous integration tools include: TeamCity and CruiseControl Cumulative Flow Diagrams – A project reporting area graph that shows work to do, work in progress, and done. Burn graphs and CFDs can replace Gantt charts to track progress.

DSDM – Dynamic Systems Development Method – an agile method created by a consortium of representatives that promotes ideas such as agile suitability filters and agile contracts.

FDD – Feature Driven Development an agile method popularized by Jeff De Luca and others that values some upfront architecture and works well for larger projects.

Feature – A description of a business understandable and business valued piece of functionality. The unit for prioritization, planning, estimation, and reporting. Some agile methods use the term Story, or Prioritized requirement.

IKIWISI- I’ll Know It When I See It – a mnemonic that described the need to see working software before being able to fully appreciate it’s fit for purpose and articulate the true business requirements.

Iteration - A short, fixed time period (typically between 1 and 4 week) during which the team produce a potentially deployable release of software for evaluation. Scrum calls them Sprints.

Pair Programming – the XP practice of two developers working at one PC to write and review code together.

Parking Lot Diagram – a status reporting graph used in FDD to summarize project progress across a number of functional areas.

Planning Game – A facilitated workshop during which developers and business representatives estimate work tasks and plan upcoming iterations.

Prioritized Requirement – A description of system functionality that has been prioritized by the business. The unit for planning, estimation, and reporting. Some agile methods use the term Story, or Feature.

Refactoring – The process of improving code (by clean-up, simplification, etc) to make it easier to maintain and expand in the future. Refactoring is a necessary step to keep the cost of changes low.

Retrospective – a facilitated workshop exercise held at the end of iterations and releases in which project stakeholders are asked to reflect back on the work to date and recall: What has worked, Areas for improvement, and Suggestions for the future. Similar to Lessons Learned sessions but performed throughout the project.

RUP – Rational Unified Process an iterative methodology owned by Rational (IBM) that can be made to be agile through strict controls on the artifacts selected, but implemented by many organizations as a heavier than agile, iterative approach.

Scrum – An agile method popularized by Jeff Sutherland, Ken Schwaber and others employing 30 day Sprints (iterations) and minimalist controls.

ScrumMaster – The iteration manager on a Scrum project. Often performed by the project manager to team lead, the ScrumMaster is responsible for managing the iterative development process.

SPI – Software Process Improvement.

Spike – A short focused period of development undertaken to prove new technology. For example “We’ll spike the Oracle 10g compatibility”.

Sprint – an iteration, a period of time to undertake development. In Scrum Sprints are typically 30 days in duration.

Standup – a short (15 minutes or less) daily meeting during which team members report on What they accomplished since the last meeting, What they plan to accomplish today, and report any impediments or blockers to making progress.

Story – A shorthand requirements document that acts as a placeholder for further discussion and elaboration with a user representative to determine the true business requirement. The unit for prioritization, planning, estimation, and reporting in XP. Some agile methods use Features, or Prioritized requirements as their requirement units.

TDD – Test Driven Development. The practice of writing tests first to better understand the requirements of new functionality. The test fails and code is written until the test passes.

Velocity – the rate of development progress. Usually expressed as stories completed (and tested) per iteration. The primary measure of development speed.

XP – eXtreme Programming an agile method popularized by Kent Beck, Ron Jefferies, and others that promotes techniques such as pair programming and user stories.

YAGNI – You Ain’t Going Need It – an XP based mantra that reminds us to keep designs simple and do not over complicate solutions for potential future expansion that may never be required.

Mike Griffiths is an independent consultant specializing in effective project management. Mike was involved in the creation of DSDM in 1994 and has been using agile methods (Scrum, FDD, XP, DSDM) for the last 13 years. He serves on the board of the Agile Alliance and the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN). He maintains a leadership and agile project management blog at http://www.LeadingAnswers.com

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