Glossary
A lightweight reference for agile terms that people actually use
This glossary gives us a clean place to define common terms once, link to them from articles, and keep the blog readable without re-explaining every foundational concept.
Category
Ceremonies
Sprint Planning
Ceremonies
The session where a team decides what it will try to deliver in the sprint and how that work fits the sprint goal and available capacity.
Open definition
Backlog Refinement
Ceremonies
The ongoing process of clarifying, splitting, and preparing upcoming work so future planning conversations are faster and more concrete.
Open definition
Category
Working agreements
Definition of Ready
Working agreements
A shared checklist or standard describing when a backlog item is clear enough to be considered for implementation.
Open definition
Definition of Done
Working agreements
A shared standard describing what must be true before work can honestly be considered complete.
Open definition
Category
Planning
Sprint Capacity
Planning
An estimate of how much delivery work a team can realistically take on in a sprint after accounting for availability, meetings, support load, and other overhead.
Open definition
Velocity
Planning
A historical measure of how much work a team has completed across previous sprints, usually expressed in story points or a similar unit.
Open definition
Category
Estimation
Story Points
Estimation
A relative estimation unit teams use to express the size of work by combining effort, complexity, uncertainty, and risk rather than counting hours directly.
Open definition
Planning Poker
Estimation
A collaborative estimation method where participants choose estimates privately, reveal them together, and discuss differences before agreeing on a value.
Open definition