What Do You Mean When You Say ...?

Or “Do you have a cheat sheet for all this new terminology?

Often as we start out moving to Agile and to SAFe, there is confusion caused by the fact that there is a lot of new terminology. The fact that there is new terminology is not a surprise - all sub-cultures have their own terminology - but it can make things difficult when you are trying to work with a group that is changing.

There are a number of glossaries out there and you should reference those for further information. This cheat sheet is just aimed at getting some of the most basic terms defined in the situation where we are working to a multi-team agile (SAFe) implementation.

Unit of Execution Focus Work Unit Planning Horizon Named Roles Events Artifacts
Team

Cross functional, 5-11 people
Technical delivery (User) Stories Iteration
(or Sprint)

2 weeks period
Product Owner (PO)
”What” the team works

Scrum Master (SM)
”How“ the team works

Agile Team
Implements the stories
Iteration Planning
Plan and commit

Daily Standup (DSU)
Execute to meet commitments

Iteration Review
Demo of working stories

Iteration Retrospective
Process improvement
Team Backlog
Prioritized requirements

Scrum or Kanban Board
Visualize/manage work

Team Definition of Done
Consistent quality definition
Agile Release Train (ART)

Multiple teams, 50-125 people
Customer value Features Program Increment
(PI)


8-12 weeks period
Product Manager (PM)
“Uber” Product Owner

Release Train Engineer (RTE)
“Uber” Scrum Master

System Architect (SA)
Enable multi-team execution
PI Planning
Plan and commit

ART Sync
Execute to meet commitments

System Demo
Demo of working features

Inspect and Adapt (I&A)
Process improvement
Program Backlog
Prioritized requirements

Program Kanban
Visualize/manage value delivery

System Definition of Done
Consistent quality definition

Want to Know More?