Agile glossary for civil servants
Thirty-two terms you will hear on a government delivery team, each defined in a sentence or two. Where GDS or the profession has its own wording, we use it, and half the entries link to the government page they come from.
This glossary defines 32 terms that a civil servant meets on an agile delivery team, in alphabetical order. Where GDS, the Government Digital and Data profession or the Kanban Guide has a definition, we have used it.
Agile
A way of working in which a team delivers in small steps, looks at what it learned and changes its plan. GDS describes it as “inspecting, learning and adapting as they go”.
Alpha
The second phase of a service. The team builds prototypes and tests different ideas, and the public cannot use what it builds. Alphas tend to last 6 to 8 weeks.
Assisted digital
The help a department gives people who lack the digital skills or internet access to use an online service on their own.
Backlog
The list of work the team has not started yet, kept in priority order. GDS describes the product backlog as where “you’ll store the user stories you have not started work on yet”.
Beta
The third phase, in which the team builds the service for real. In private beta a limited number of invited people use it. In public beta anyone who needs it can.
Capability framework
The Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework sets out the digital and data roles in government and the skills for each role at each level.
Cycle time
The time that passed between a team starting a work item and finishing it.
Delivery manager
The person on a service team who sets up the agile environment, removes blockers and helps the team organise its own work. Our guide to the delivery manager role covers the levels and skills.
Discovery
The first phase. The team learns about users and the problem and does not build the service. GDS says 4 to 8 weeks is typical.
Kanban
A method GDS describes as “a way of visualising and improving your current working practices so that work flows through a system quickly”. The team shows its work on a board and limits how much it has in progress.
Live
The fourth phase. The service has passed its live assessment and the team runs it and keeps improving it.
Monte Carlo simulation
A way to forecast from a team’s past throughput. A script replays recent weeks at random thousands of times and counts how often the work finishes by each date. Our flow metrics guide has a worked example.
Multidisciplinary team
A team that holds all the skills it takes to create and run the service, such as product management, user research, design, development and delivery management. It is point 6 of the Service Standard.
Product manager
The person who sets the future goal of the service, makes sure the service will meet user needs and puts the team’s user stories in priority order.
Prototype
A quick, throwaway version of part of a service that the team builds to test an idea with users before it writes production code.
Retrospective
A regular meeting, often called a retro, where the whole team talks about what is going well and what is not and fixes the problems it finds.
Scrum
An agile method in which the team works in sprints. GDS calls it “the most commonly used agile method” and a good starting point for a team new to agile.
Service assessment
A review, usually about four hours long, in which a panel of specialists checks a service against the Service Standard. See our guide to preparing for one.
Service level expectation
The Kanban Guide’s name for a forecast of how long a work item should take from start to finish, such as “85% of items finish in 12 days or fewer”.
Service owner
The person with overall responsibility for developing, running and improving the service. GDS says the service owner represents the service at assessments, and the department must appoint one during alpha.
Service Standard
The 14 points GDS sets for government services. Our guide lists all 14 in order.
Show and tell
A regular meeting at which team members demonstrate their work. GDS also calls it a team review or sprint review, and the team can invite stakeholders such as directors or suppliers.
Spend controls
The central approval process that used to apply to digital and technology spending. The controls were replaced on 1st April 2026, and teams now go to their own department’s assurance team.
Sprint
A fixed period of time in which a Scrum team works on an agreed set of items. The Scrum Guide sets the length at one month or less.
Stand-up
A meeting the team holds every day, kept to 15 minutes or less. Each person says what they are working on and whether a problem or dependency is in the way.
Technology Code of Practice
A set of 13 criteria to help government design, build and buy technology.
Throughput
The number of work items a team finishes in a unit of time, such as a week.
User need
GDS defines user needs as the needs a user has of a service, “which that service must satisfy for the user to get the right outcome for them”. Users include staff who provide the service, such as caseworkers and call centre agents.
User story
A brief record of one thing the team has to do to build the service. The team keeps its user stories in the backlog.
Work in progress
The number of work items a team has started and not yet finished. People shorten it to WIP.
Work in progress limit
The most items a team agrees to have in progress at once, for the whole board or for one column. When the team reaches the limit, it finishes something before it starts anything new.
Work item age
The time that has passed since the team started an item it has not yet finished.
Put the terms to use
If you are new to agile delivery, our one-day course Agile Fundamentals for Civil Servants covers Scrum, Kanban and user stories in exercises built on government scenarios, and it costs £595+VAT per delegate. If one area matters most to you, go to the guide on the delivery phases, the Service Standard or flow metrics.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between discovery and alpha?
In discovery the team studies the problem and does not start building the service. In alpha it builds prototypes to test its riskiest ideas, and it expects to throw that code away.
What does WIP stand for in agile?
Work in progress. It is the count of items a team has started and not yet finished, and a WIP limit is the most the team agrees to have in progress at once.
Do spend controls still apply to digital projects?
The digital and technology spend controls were replaced on 1st April 2026. Departments now make most of those spending decisions themselves, and HM Treasury approves spending above a department's limit.
What is the difference between a product manager and a delivery manager?
In GDS's description, the product manager sets the goal for the service and puts the work in priority order. The delivery manager sets up the way the team works and removes whatever blocks it.