Scrum & Agile,
In Plain English.

Term Velocity How much work a team finishes per sprint, in story points. Term Story Points A relative-sizing unit for work that captures complexity, effort, and uncertainty. Term Sprint A fixed-length timebox (usually 1-4 weeks) where a team commits to and ships a defined slice of work. Term Sprint Goal A single sentence that explains why the sprint matters and what the team is committing to deliver. Term Retrospective The meeting at the end of a sprint where the team inspects how the sprint went and decides what to change next. Term Burndown Chart A line chart that shows remaining work over time during a sprint, ideally trending toward zero by the end. Term Planning Poker A collaborative estimation technique where each team member privately picks a story-point value, then reveals together. Term Kanban A flow-based workflow where work moves through columns (To Do → In Progress → Done) without fixed sprints. Term Backlog The ordered list of all work the team could do in the future. The top is groomed and ready; the bottom is rough ideas. Term Epic A large body of work that spans multiple sprints and is broken down into smaller user stories. Term User Story A short description of a feature from the user’s perspective. Format: "As a [role], I want [goal] so that [reason]". Term Definition of Done The shared checklist that says when a ticket is genuinely finished; tested, reviewed, deployed, documented. Term Definition of Ready The checklist a backlog item must satisfy before the team will pull it into a sprint; usually scoped, sized, and clear. Term Sprint Capacity The realistic amount of work the team can complete in the next sprint, given PTO, holidays, and focus factor. Term Focus Factor The percentage of working hours that actually go to sprint work, after meetings, code review, and interrupts. Term Backlog Refinement The ongoing process of breaking down, clarifying, sizing, and ordering items in the product backlog so they are ready for sprint planning. Term Spike A timeboxed investigation used to reduce uncertainty before estimating or committing to a story; the output is knowledge, not shippable code. Term Cycle Time The elapsed time between starting work on an issue and finishing it. Lower cycle time = faster, more predictable delivery. Term WIP Limit A cap on how many items can be in progress at once in a workflow column. Forces the team to finish before starting and exposes bottlenecks. Term Technical Debt The accumulated cost of choosing a faster, less-clean implementation today, which will be paid back later as slower future work and bugs. Term Daily Standup A short daily sync (≤15 min) where each team member shares what they did, what they plan to do, and what is blocking them. Term Sprint Review The end-of-sprint meeting where the team demos completed work to stakeholders and gathers feedback that shapes the next sprint. Term Acceptance Criteria Specific, testable conditions a user story must satisfy before it counts as done. Frames what "working" actually means for that story. Term Lead Time Elapsed time from when an issue is created (or first requested) to when it is delivered. Wider than cycle time; includes the wait before work starts. Term Scrum Master The role responsible for protecting the team from interrupts, removing blockers, and coaching the team and stakeholders on healthy sprint practice. Term MCP (Model Context Protocol) An open protocol that lets AI coding assistants (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, Zed) talk to external systems through a uniform tools-and-resources interface. The standard "LSP for AI agents".