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This article gives a short dictionary of terms and the tools you use to track work with Sprints and Scrum. Also review Agile glossary and Project management and navigation glossary.
Agile tools
A suite of web-based tools used to track work and support Agile methodologies. Agile tools support the core Agile methods—Scrum and Kanban—used by software development teams today. Learn more: About Agile tools and Agile project management.
Bugs
A type of work item that records a potential source of dissatisfaction with the product. The common name of a work item type for tracking code defects. Each team can choose how they want to manage bugs. Some teams like to track bugs along with requirements on the backlog. Other teams like to track bugs as tasks performed in support of a requirement. The bugs then appear on their Taskboard. Learn more: Manage bugs.
Burndown and burnup charts
Burndown and burnup charts help you visually track work completed over time. Burndown charts start with the total planned work and graph remaining work as the team completes tasks. As time progresses, remaining work decreases.
Burnup charts show the total work completed over time and help you illustrate delivery rate.
For guidance, see Burndown and burnup guidance.
Team and individual capacity
Capacity maps to the actual task time (hours or days) available to an individual or a team. Azure DevOps provides a Capacity tool for each team's sprint so you can set individual capacity and days off when you create tasks and estimate work.
Setting capacity shows total team hours or days for the sprint and displays each team member's capacity bar. Learn more: Set sprint capacity.
Capacity bars
Capacity bars let you quickly see who is over, at, or under capacity. Capacity bars update when you:
- assign tasks with nonzero remaining work,
- change remaining work, or
- change dates within the sprint cycle.
Individual and team capacity reflect capacity from the current day through the end of the sprint.
| Capacity colors | Capacity bars |
|---|---|
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For details, see Adjust work to fit sprint capacity.
Daily scrum meetings
Daily Scrum meetings keep teams focused on what they need to do to meet sprint commitments. The Scrum Master enforces the meeting structure and helps the team start on time and finish in 15 minutes or less. See Scrum best practices, Daily scrum meeting.
Forecast
Use the Forecast tool to plan sprints. Forecast shows backlog items that teams can complete in future sprints based on estimates and velocity.
For example, a velocity of 20 indicates the work shown takes about five sprints to complete. See Forecast your product backlog.
Iteration paths (aka sprints)
A time period, usually two to three weeks, used to group work items to be completed during that time period. Sprints are used in Scrum methods to support sprint planning, sprint burndown, and other Scrum processes. Iteration paths allow you to group work into sprints, milestones, or other event-specific or time-related period. Learn more: About area and iteration paths.
Product backlog
An interactive list of work items that corresponds to a team's project plan or roadmap for what the team plans to deliver. The product backlog supports prioritizing work, forecasting work by sprints, and quickly linking work to portfolio backlog items. You can define your backlog items and then manage their status using the board.
Each product backlog can be customized by a team. Learn more: Create your backlog.
Product backlog item (PBI)
A type of work item that defines the applications, requirements, and elements that teams plan to create. Product owners typically define and stack rank product backlog items which are defined with the Scrum process. Learn more: Scrum process work item types and workflow.
Product owner role
Product owners act as the interface between customers and the team. They respond to team questions about implementation, define acceptance criteria, and help reduce the need for detailed specifications.
Scrum Master role
Scrum Masters help create and maintain healthy teams by coaching and guiding Scrum practices. They remove impediments and drive improvements in team productivity. See Scrum best practices, Role of the Scrum Master.
Sprints (also known as iterations)
A sprint is a time period of usually two to three weeks that's used to group work items to be completed during that time period. Sprints are used in Scrum methods to support sprint planning, sprint burndown, and other Scrum processes. Sprints are defined via iteration paths. For more information, see About area and iteration paths (aka sprints).
Sprint backlog
An interactive list of work items that have been assigned to the same sprint or iteration path for a team. The sprint backlog supports teams that use Scrum methodologies. Learn more: Sprint planning.
Sprint burndown chart
The team uses the sprint burndown chart to track progress toward completing the work estimated during sprint planning. The ideal trend line indicates a steady decrease in remaining work. The blue area in the chart shows actual activity: task additions and reductions as the team updates task remaining work.
Sprint goals
Sprint goals focus sprint activities and summarize what the team plans to accomplish by the sprint end. See Scrum best practices, Set sprint goals.
Sprint planning
Sprint planning occurs at the sprint start when the product owner and the team agree on sprint goals and work. See Scrum best practices, Sprint planning meetings.
Sprint retrospective meetings
At sprint end, the team demonstrates completed work, stakeholders accept user stories that meet expectations, and everyone identifies improvements. See Scrum best practices, Sprint retrospective meeting.
Task
A task is a work item that tracks estimated and remaining work. In Scrum, teams often define tasks between 4 and 12 hours. Tasks help monitor sprint burndown, manage team capacity, and drive Taskboard activity. Tasks link to parent product backlog items or user stories. See Add tasks to backlog items.
Taskboard
A Taskboard provides an interactive view for the work required to complete a team's sprint backlog. During the sprint, update task status and remaining work daily or several times a week to keep the sprint burndown chart smooth. See Taskboard.
Teams
A team corresponds to a selected set of project members. With teams, organizations can subcategorize work to better focus on all the work they track within a project. Each team gets access to a suite of Agile tools. Teams can use these tools to work autonomously and collaborate with other teams across the enterprise. Each team can configure and customize each tool to meet their work requirements. For more information, see About teams and Agile tools.
Team member
A team member is someone added to a project and assigned to one or more teams. Team-scoped Agile tools—capacity planning, team alerts, and dashboard widgets—automatically reference team members for planning and notifications.
To add users to a team, see Add users to a project or specific team.
Technical debt
Technical debt includes work required to deploy and maintain production-quality code: bugs, performance and operational issues, accessibility gaps, and similar items. See What is Agile Development?.
Triage meetings
Triage meetings help teams review and organize backlog and bug work. Product owners typically run triage meetings with team leads, business analysts, and stakeholders to identify risks, acceptance criteria, and priorities.
User story
A type of work item that defines the applications, requirements, and elements that teams plan to create. Product owners typically define and stack rank user stories. User story is defined with the Agile process. Learn more: Agile process work item types and workflow.
Velocity and velocity chart
Velocity helps teams understand how much work they can complete in a sprint cadence. After several sprints, teams use the velocity chart and Forecast to estimate future sprint capacity.
The built-in velocity chart sums Story Points (Agile), Effort (Scrum), or Size (CMMI) for each sprint. The green bar shows completed story effort; the blue portion shows estimated effort not yet completed. See View and work with the built-in team velocity chart.
Each team has one velocity chart. Velocity varies with team capacity and over time, but averages become useful for forecasting when teams reduce variability in backlog item sizing. See Add tasks to backlog items.