I'm working on the edits to a National Defense Industry Association guide to Earned Value Management on Agile programs and also working two other programs where Agile is being applied to Earned Value Management programs, with flow down for both agile (Scrum in all cases) and FAR 34.2 Earned Value Management Systems that will be validated by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) or the Cognizant Federal Agency (CFA) for compliance with IEA-748-C.
There are huge fights on the internet about what it means when we say X. Typically these are coming for sole contributors that have adopted their own localizations of terms. Many times from the trainign they took or a book they read.
The trouble is, when writing guidance that will be referenced in policy documents, have local definitions is not very useful. Add to that the applicable of Agile on EVM programs, means those programs ar $20M or greater, and it will rarely be the case where there is a single Scrum team. Scrum-of-Scrum, Agile at Scale, or Large Scale Agile is the norm. So a standard set of definitions is needed to avoid chaos
When I use a word Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, it means just what I choose to to mean - neither more nor less. The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things. The question is said Humpty Dumpty which is to be master. Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 6
In the Agile paradigm, having structure and governance is considered not agile. Working programs with Earned Value Management for sovereigns requires structure and governance for he program controls processes and data, and the words used in that program controls process. Why - because it's public money and you don't get to make up the definitions of things.
Here's a sample Glossaries that provide terms as candidates for agile
- Agile Dictionary
- Glossary of Scrum Terms
- Glossary
- Scrum.Org Glossary
- Scaled Agile Framework Glossary
- ASPE Glossary
- Rally
- SolutionsIQ
When individuals or organizations define or worse redefine terms it creates confusion at best, and creates opportunities for strong disagreement at worse.
