Agile Fundamentals Flashcards

What does the Agile principle 'sustainable pace' mean for development teams?

Answer: Teams should work at a consistent pace they can maintain indefinitely without burnout

Agile promotes sustainable development where teams maintain a steady, healthy pace that can be continued long-term without degrading quality or morale.

In Lean-Agile thinking, what is 'muda' (waste)?

Answer: Any activity that consumes resources without adding value for the customer

Muda is the Lean concept of waste — activities like unnecessary waiting, over-production, or excess inventory that add cost but no customer value.

Which statement best describes 'emergent architecture' in Agile?

Answer: Architecture evolves incrementally through iterative development and continuous refactoring

Agile favors architecture that emerges through working software and refactoring, guided by principles rather than comprehensive upfront design.

What is a 'spike' in Agile development?

Answer: A time-boxed research or exploration task to reduce uncertainty before committing to work

A spike is a time-boxed investigation used to answer a question or reduce risk, helping teams make informed decisions before estimating or building.

How does Agile handle the trade-off between scope, schedule, and cost?

Answer: Scope is variable; schedule and cost are held relatively fixed to enable regular delivery

Agile fixes time and cost (Sprints have fixed length and team size) while allowing scope to flex, ensuring regular delivery of the highest-priority work.

What does 'continuous integration' (CI) mean in an Agile context?

Answer: Developers frequently merge code changes to a shared branch, triggering automated builds and tests

CI involves frequent code merges (often multiple times daily) with automated builds and tests to detect integration problems immediately.

Which metric best measures true Agile team progress according to the Agile Manifesto?

Answer: Working software delivered to users

The Agile Manifesto states 'working software is the primary measure of progress,' not tasks, stories, or code volume.