A Guide to Agile for English Speakers<br>13 Jul 2026<br>A Guide to Agile for English Speakers
Agile can be incredibly hard to understand; I hope this short guide proves<br>useful.
Basic Vocabulary
Backlog<br>To-do List.<br>Epic<br>???<br>Grooming a backlog<br>Editing a todo-list.<br>Retro, Retrospective
A long standup, marking the end of a<br>sprint.
Scrum Master<br>Ceremonial role. Utility unknown.<br>Sprint
Arbitrary unit of work taking an arbitrary unit of time. Significance<br>unknown.
Standup
Religious ritual involving technical people justifying their jobs to<br>non-technical people, who don't understand what they do.
Story Points<br>An estimation game for children.<br>User Story<br>A specification game for children.
Agile Manifesto
One of the most challenging texts in the Agile Language; often referenced but<br>famously hard to interpret. I have chosen a few select passages, but bear in<br>mind there is no consensus among Agile scholars as to their meaning.
Working software over comprehensive documentation<br>We don't haven a user guide, wanna hop on a call ???<br>Responding to change over following a plan<br>We'll wing it.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes<br>harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
We're paid hourly.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the<br>project.
Send a lot of emails, but don't say much in any of them.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances<br>agility.
It is what it is.