Learner Reference
Last updated on 2026-06-08 | Edit this page
Agile Methods for RSEs Handbook
Glossary
This glossary defines the key terms used in the handbook and also throughout this course.
Agile Methodology
A methodology for project / product management built on a set of
values:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
- Working software over comprehensive documentation.
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
- Responding to change over following a plan.
Two implementations of the agile manifesto are Scrum (the most popular) and Extreme Programming (XP).
Backlog Refinement
Also known as backlog grooming or backlog enhancement, this is a
regular session where backlog items are discussed, reviewed, and
prioritised by product managers, Product
Owners, and the rest of the team. it generally consists of:
- Deciding which user stories to pursue in the next sprint.
- Pruning the backlog of stories that aren’t relevant to the team’s
current objectives.
- Adding stories based on current or changing customer needs.
- Estimating timelines and deliverables.
- Dividing user stories that are too large to tackle into smaller
tasks.
Definition of Done
Typically the definition of done defines a set of criteria, agreed by the whole team, for when an Increment is complete. However, it can also be used to define a set of criteria for when individual Issues are regarded as complete.
Developer
A member of the team responsible for completing Issues. This is typically a software engineer in our context.
Development Team
A subset of the members of the Scrum Team that consists solely of Developers.
Epic
A body of work that can be broken down into individual Issues (tasks or stories).
Extreme Programming (XP)
An agile methodology that, like Scrum, targets speed and simplicity with short development cycles and less documentation. The process structure is determined by five guiding values, five rules, and 12 XP practices.
Functional Requirements
Define required functions of a system (i.e. what the system does) in terms of inputs and outputs. E.g. The system shall wash my socks.
GitHub Project
A project is an adaptable spreadsheet, task-board, and road map that integrates with Issues and pull requests on GitHub to help you plan and track your work effectively. You can create and customise multiple views by filtering, sorting, grouping your Issues and pull requests, visualise work with configurable charts, and add custom fields to track metadata.
Increment
An increment is a step towards the final product in an agile project. A sprint may create multiple increments but each increment is additive and builds on the previous one. The increment must be a usable, value-adding step and can typically result in a new demo release of the software being produced depending on the project type.
Issue (GitHub)
GitHub Issues are items you can create in a repository to plan, discuss and track work. Issues are simple to create and flexible to suit a variety of scenarios. They can represent different types of work items, including Epics, User Stories, Tasks, and Sub-tasks. You can use Issues to track work, give or receive feedback, collaborate on ideas or tasks, and efficiently communicate with others. They can be attached to a GitHub Project, linked to pull requests and referenced by each other to keep information related to the work being done on a project joined up and coherent.
Iteration
See Sprint.
Jira
Jira (also called Jira Software) is a proprietary product developed by Atlassian that allows bug tracking, Issue tracking and agile project management.
Kanban
Kanban is a popular framework used to implement agile software development. It requires real-time communication of capacity and full transparency of work. Work items are represented visually on a kanban board, allowing team members to see the state of every piece of work at any time.
Kick-Off Meeting
A project kick-off meeting is the first meeting between the Development Team and the Product Owner and/or Stakeholders after a project starts as defined by the “RSE Department Project Demand and Monitoring Process”. At this meeting, the RSE Request Document outlining the agreed scope of the project is revisited and the Product Backlog populated for the first time. The kick-off meeting is often a good time to ensure Product Owners prioritise user stories to facilitate the planning of the first sprint.
Non-Functional Requirements
Define required attributes of qualities of a system (i.e. how the system does what it does). E.g. The system washing my socks shall use less than 10p of electricity.
Product Backlog (Backlog)
A prioritised list of all work that could be done for the product being developed. It is managed by the Product Owner. Items in the list can be new features, enhancements or bug fixes and they are added as stories or tasks. The list is live, in that items can be added, removed, re-ordered and evolved at any time.
Product Owner
The role of a Product Owner is to work with Stakeholders to create a vision of the product they wish to create and communicate that product vision to the Development Team. The Product Owner is considered part of the Scrum Team and owns the Product Backlog.
Product Release
For software projects, a release of the product is any compiled version of the software that is distributed or deployed. This includes the creation of demonstrators. When producing a release, there is a process that developers must follow so it is properly recorded.
Project Manager
This refers to the G7 RSE who owns the project from an RSE department operational perspective. They are responsible for the engagement and to make sure the project is delivering as expected and the relationship with our customers is sound. In some instances, the term “project manager” may also refer to a project manager employed by the researchers to manage project delivery. In these cases, they do not replace the project manage from our side, rather, the project manager on our side simply focusses on scrum mastery and relationship management.
Requirements Engineer
A requirements engineer is responsible for defining, documenting, and maintaining requirements in the engineering design process.
Scrum
An agile methodology that targets speed and simplicity with short development cycles and less documentation. The process structure is determined by a set of values, principles and practices.
Scrum Artefacts
Information that the Scrum Team and Stakeholders use to describe the product being developed, actions to produce it, and the actions performed during development. The main ones are the Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increments.
Scrum Ceremonies
A fancy name for meetings really and are also called scrum events. They are essentially activities undertaken by the scrum team and the stakeholders with a strict cadence and agenda for each one.
Scrum Master
The facilitator of scrum. In the RSE department, the G7 RSE, in their project manager role and owner of the project from the RSE side of the engagement, will carry out the scrum master role. Ideally this person will have some experience in using GitHub, but if not then the training facilitator will be able to guide them.
Scrum Pillars
These pillars lay the foundation for the scrum framework and
are:
- Transparency: Giving visiblity of the relevant parts
of the process to those responsible for its outcome.
- Inspection: Timely checks on progress towards the
sprint goal to stay on top of variance.
- Adaptation: Continously adjust and adapt to minimise
issues and deviation.
Scrum Roles
A set of role definitions (product owner, scrum master, development team) that play a part in the scrum process.
Scrum Team
The Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master.
Scrum Values
Taken from Scrum.org, the scrum values are:
- Courage: Scrum team members need courage to do the
right thing and face tough problems. For example, they should exhibit
courage to explore the unknown, to change direction, to share
information and to engage in courteous disagreements.
- Focus: The scrum team focuses on the work of the
sprint and its goals. Examples of this include focusing on: creating
value, what’s currently most important and getting to done.
- Commitment: Each scrum team member commits to
achieving the team’s goals and to support each other. This involves
commitment or dedication to delivering value, quality, working toward
the sprint and product goals,using empiricism.
- Respect: It’s necessary for scrum team members to
respect each other as skilled professionals. Scrum team members should
respect each other’s differing expertise and perspectives and be
respectful when they disagree.
- Openness: The scrum team and its stakeholders agree
to be open about all of the work and the challenges with performing the
work. Scrum team members should be open about the struggles they face.
They should share feedback and learn from each other and from their
stakeholders.
Sprint Goal
A brief explanation of what the team plans to achieve during the course of a Sprint. An example sprint goal might be: “Create a dashboard with basic widgets for the most common two platforms.”
Sprint Planning
Sprint planning is an event in scrum that kicks off the sprint. The purpose of sprint planning is to define what can be delivered in the sprint and how that work will be achieved. Sprint planning is done in collaboration with the whole scrum team.
Sprint Retrospective
The Scrum Team inspects how the last sprint went with regards to individuals, interactions, processes, tools, and their definition of done. The team identify changes that can be made to improve their effectiveness and put them into action for the next sprint.
Sprint Review
A meeting that happens at the end of every sprint. This is when the team runs through work items they completed during the sprint. A sprint review ensures key stakeholders are up to date, and it enables them to provide feedback. It may feature a demo of the software if applicable.
Stakeholder
Anyone with a vested interest in the product who is not part of the scrum team. In the RSE department, academics can often fit into this role if they do not engage actively with the technical side of the project or assume a product owner role in the process.
Stand-Up
Formally a daily meeting to update on progress and tackle any blockers. However, in the RSE department, this typically takes the form of a weekly or fortnightly check-in between the RSEs and the project manager owning the engagement.
Task
A type of issue which can be a non-functional requirement or some item of work that needs to be done that cannot be described in the form of a user story.