| Acceptance Criteria |
Observable conditions that prove value has been delivered; written before significant engineering starts and used to verify ticket completion. |
Tickets & Sizing |
| Backlog |
First column on the board containing candidate items with potential value but not yet committed; anyone can propose items. |
Workflow Overview |
| Coach |
Facilitator ensuring process integrity: guides standup and retros, highlights flow issues, champions quality practices and never acts as a task assigner. |
Roles & Responsibilities |
| Column |
Vertical board stage representing a distinct state change in learning/validation (e.g., Analyze, Engineer, Release). |
Workflow Overview |
| Cycle Time |
Time elapsed from when a ticket leaves Ready until it enters Done; key flow metric used to measure throughput and identify bottlenecks. |
WIP & Flow |
| Definition of Done (DoD) |
Checklist of quality signals (tests, monitoring, documentation) that must be met before a ticket moves to Done, ensuring supportability. |
Tickets & Sizing |
| Design Doc |
Lightweight document prepared during Analyze phase to align intent, surface risks, and document design decisions; requires 2 peer signoffs. |
Design Docs |
| Interrupt |
Unexpected, non‑Swarm work that still needs tracking (e.g., compliance request). Limited to one active to protect focus. |
Workflow Overview |
| On Call Engineer |
Short rotation role triaging incidents/interrupts, creating Swarm/Interrupt tickets, and coordinating rapid response. |
Roles & Responsibilities |
| Planning Session |
Meeting (every 1-2 weeks) where team estimates backlog items using WSJF, clarifies acceptance criteria, and Coach pulls top items into Ready. |
Meetings |
| Planning Poker |
Estimation technique where team members independently select effort estimates then reveal simultaneously to avoid anchoring bias. (Learn more) |
Meetings |
| Planned |
Intentionally prioritized, value‑adding work forming the bulk of throughput. |
Workflow Overview |
| Rail |
Horizontal swimlane grouping tickets by urgency or type (Swarm, Interrupt, Planned). |
Workflow Overview |
| Ready |
Second column on the board containing highest-priority, well-understood items with clear acceptance criteria; engineers pull from here when starting. |
Workflow Overview |
| Retrospective (Retro) |
Regular meeting (every 1-2 weeks) to celebrate wins, review ticket data, identify waste, and choose improvement experiments. |
Meetings |
| Shepherd |
Person facilitating a ticket's progress (design doc, reviews, validation) ensuring the Definition of Done is met and may pair with others for implementation. |
Tickets & Sizing |
| SLA (Service Level Agreement) |
Agreed maximum duration for a ticket (commonly < 2 weeks) after leaving Ready; drives small, testable scope. |
Tickets & Sizing |
| Spike |
Time‑boxed research ticket answering specific questions; outputs decisions and follow‑on tickets, not production code. |
Tickets & Sizing |
| Standup |
Daily 10-15 minute meeting organized by ticket (board right to left, Swarm to Planned) discussing what's needed to move tickets forward and blockers. |
Meetings |
| Starfish Retrospective |
Broader retro format categorizing feedback: Start, Stop, Continue, More, Less to surface strategic adjustments. (Learn more) |
Meetings |
| Swarm |
Highest priority customer‑impacting issue; team may pause other work to resolve quickly (goal < 1 business day). |
Workflow Overview |
| Ticket |
Smallest independently valuable, testable work item with clear acceptance criteria and definition of done. |
Tickets & Sizing |
| Value Stream Mapping |
Structured analysis of an outlier ticket’s timeline to expose waste sources (waiting, multitasking, unclear scope). |
Meetings |
| WIP (Work In Progress) |
Count of active, in‑flight tickets (not in Backlog/Done). Limiting WIP increases flow and reduces context switching. |
WIP & Flow |
| WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) |
Prioritization heuristic: (Cost of Delay + Business Value) / Effort to maximize value flow. (Learn more) |
Meetings |