Resources Glossary
backlog - The main source of information about the project is the Product Backlog, which defines requirements the application must meet in order to be successful. Requirements are expressed as user stories of the format: “As a: I want to: So I can: ”
blocker - Any issue or task that is preventing the project from moving forward or is preventing another task from being able to be started.
branch - Branches are used to propose changes to GitHub projects. A branch is a parallel version of the main line of development in the repository, or the default branch. Excerpted from GitHub Help - About Branches.
commit - Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along with a log message from the user describing the changes. Excerpted from Git Documentation.
burndown chart - A graphical view of the number of stories in the backlog that have been completed against the total number remaining across sprints.
merge conflict - Git can often resolve differences between merged branches. Usually, the changes are on different lines, or even in different files, which makes the merge simple for computers to understand. However, sometimes there are competing changes that Git needs your help with to decide which changes to incorporate in the final merge. Often, merge conflicts happen when people make different changes to the same line of the same file, or when one person edits a file and another person deletes the same file. You must resolve the conflict before you can merge the branches. Excerpted from GitHub Help - About Merge Conflicts.
pull request (PR) - Pull requests let you tell others about changes you've pushed to a repository on GitHub. Once a pull request is opened, you can discuss and review the potential changes with collaborators and add follow-up commits before the changes are merged into the repository. Excerpted from GitHub Help - About Pull Requests.
README - A README file, along with a repository license, contribution guidelines, and a code of conduct, helps you communicate expectations for and manage contributions to your project. Excerpted from GitHub Help - About READMEs.
rebase - The git rebase command allows you to easily change a series of commits, modifying the history of your repository. You can reorder, edit, or squash commits together. Excerpted from GitHub Help - About Git Rebase.
repo - A repository is like a folder for your project. Your project's repository contains all of your project's files and stores each file's revision history. Excerpted from GitHub Help - About Repositories.
sprint - Application development cycles lasting from one to four weeks. Sprint length is fixed across the life of the project and is chosen by the team. A fixed number of user stories are assigned to each sprint. This is not to say that stories cannot be added to the sprint. Just that they can’t be added if doing so exceeds the capacity of the team to create, test, and deploy a working application by the end of the sprint.
story points - A measure of relative effort or difficulty required to complete a given story. Part of the backlog grooming process is for the Scrum Team to review user stories and estimate the number of story points required for each one. There are many different methods that can be used for this and the one chosen by the Scrum Team isn’t as important as the need to be consistent when estimating story points.
velocity - Measures the average rate that stories are completed across sprints. The basic method is to divide the number of story points completed by the total number in the product backlog. Over time velocity is a measure of the work that can be expected to be completed in a sprint and it is used to ensure that the team doesn’t overcommit the number of story points to be completed in a given sprint.
