Agile Teams

Team Self-Organization

A cross-functional group that selects and completes tasks independently without top-down assignment.

Product Owner Role

Defines product features, maintains the backlog, and prioritizes business value.

Scrum Master Role

Enforces process rules, mentors the team, and serves as a facilitator distinct from the Product Owner.

Closed-Window Rule

A practice that freezes sprint scope to shield the development team from mid-iteration changes.

Daily Standup

A 15-minute daily sync answering: what was done yesterday, what will be done today, and what obstacles exist.

Collaborative Estimation

Techniques like Planning Poker that use team consensus to estimate task effort and timelines.

Collective Code Ownership

A practice where the entire team holds responsibility for the codebase, preventing code silos.

Continuous Integration

Integrating code updates regularly (often daily) to catch system incompatibility early.

Pair Programming

Two programmers working together at one workstation as a 'pilot' and 'navigator' to catch errors live.

Refactoring

Restructuring existing code to improve its architecture without changing its external behavior.

Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Writing automated tests before writing feature code to prevent regressions.

Coding Standards

Unified team style guidelines that maintain code readability and collective maintenance.

Onsite Customer Pitfall

It is hard to staff continuously, taxes the individual, and risks single-point bias.

Pair Programming Pitfall

Mandatory pairing can frustrate developers, ignore deep focus needs, and lacks proof over traditional code reviews.

Pure TDD Architecture Risk

Relying solely on refactoring without upfront design can result in fragile, ad-hoc system architectures.

Minimalist Scope Risk

Focusing strictly on minimal immediate requirements discourages extensible designs and reusable components.