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PMI PMP · 8 Essential Terms
PMP agile and hybrid vocabulary: product backlog, sprint, increment, daily scrum, retrospective versus review, servant leadership, definition of done, and hybrid life cycles.
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The ordered list of what is known to be valuable for the product. The product owner is accountable for its content and order.
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The ordered list of what is known to be valuable for the product. The product owner is accountable for its content and order.
Mnemonic. The product backlog is the whole product's wish list, ordered. The sprint backlog is only this sprint's commitment.
Exam trap. A stakeholder does not reorder the product backlog by sending a private note to a developer. The product owner owns the order.
A fixed timebox, often one to four weeks, during which the team creates a done increment aimed at a sprint goal. The goal is not casually swapped mid-sprint.
Mnemonic. A sprint is a protected timebox with one goal, not a bucket for every new request.
Exam trap. Adding a large new feature in the middle because a stakeholder arrived is the trap. New ideas go to the product backlog. The timebox does not stretch to fit them.
A usable slice of the product that meets the definition of done and adds to the previously done work. It is not a pile of unfinished tasks.
Mnemonic. An increment is something a user could use, added to what already works.
Exam trap. Calling a half-tested feature an increment because the sprint ended is the trap. If it does not meet the definition of done, it is not part of the increment.
A 15-minute event for the developers to inspect progress toward the sprint goal and adapt the next day's plan. It is not a status meeting for a manager.
Mnemonic. The daily scrum is the team's replanning, in a quarter-hour, aimed at the sprint goal.
Exam trap. Turning it into a manager's status round, or skipping it because a written report exists, misses the event. The output is an adjusted plan, not a report.
The event in which the team inspects how they worked (people, process, tools) and selects an improvement to try next sprint. It is not the review of the product.
Mnemonic. Retro looks at how. Review looks at what was built.
Exam trap. Using the retrospective to demo features to stakeholders mixes it with the sprint review. Keep the improvement conversation even when the increment was a success.
A leadership practice that coaches the team, removes impediments, and protects the conditions for the team to deliver, rather than assigning every task from above.
Mnemonic. Serve the system's ability to deliver. Do not collect decisions for their own sake.
Exam trap. Servant leadership is not absence of leadership, and it is not doing the team's work. The trap answer is a leader who takes control of every task assignment.
The shared quality bar an increment must meet before it is done. It applies across items. Acceptance criteria belong to one specific backlog item.
Mnemonic. Done is the team's shared gate. Acceptance criteria are the extra lock on a single story.
Exam trap. Declaring a story done because the code was written, while the definition of done still requires testing and documentation, is the trap.
A delivery approach that combines predictive and adaptive elements, such as agile build sprints inside a regulatory phase gate.
Mnemonic. Hybrid keeps the gate that must be predictive and the build that should be adaptive.
Exam trap. Hybrid is not a mess of undefined process. The exam wants a reason: a fixed external gate plus evolving scope behind it, for example.