Agile Glossary: Key Terms Every Software Team Should Know

A shared vocabulary is the foundation of a high-functioning Agile team. Here are the terms you'll encounter most often.

Acceptance Criteria

Conditions that a user story or feature must satisfy to be accepted as complete. Good acceptance criteria are specific, testable, and agreed upon before development begins.

Backlog

The prioritized list of all work items (stories, bugs, tasks) waiting to be done. The product backlog is owned by the Product Owner; the sprint backlog contains items pulled into the current sprint.

Definition of Done (DoD)

A shared checklist of criteria that every item must meet before it's considered complete — e.g., code reviewed, tests passing, deployed to staging.

Epic

A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller user stories. Epics usually span multiple sprints and represent a significant feature or initiative.

Sprint

A fixed time-box (typically 1–4 weeks) during which the team commits to completing a set of backlog items. Sprints have a defined start and end date.

Story Points

A unit of measure for estimating the relative effort of a backlog item. They capture complexity, risk, and effort — not hours.

User Story

A short description of a feature from the perspective of the end user, following the format: As a [user], I want [goal] so that [benefit].

Velocity

The average number of story points a team completes per sprint, used to forecast future capacity.

Kanban

A visual workflow management method that limits work-in-progress (WIP) and optimizes flow. Often used alongside or as an alternative to Scrum.

Scrum

An Agile framework that organizes work into sprints with defined ceremonies: Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.