Environmental Variables

[en-vahy-ruh n-muh nt-ahl, -vahy-ern- vair-ee-uh-buh l]

Definition of Environmental Variables

Factors affecting Effort that are not related to the actual Story. These include, but are not limited to, Technical Debt, Organizational Noise, SME Availability, and Team Ability.

See:

Technical Debt, This is an Environmental Variable that includes deficiencies in the code, technical documentation, development environments, 3rd-party tools, and development practices, which makes it hard for the Team to modify, update,...
Organizational Noise, An Organization that empowers and nurtures its Teams is said to be a ‘quiet’ Organization, while one with many procedures, meetings, interruptions, and the like, is said to be ‘noisy.’
SME Availability, An Environmental Variable that indicates whether or not there are Subject Matter Experts available who have the knowledge or expertise you need, when you need it.
Team Ability This is an Environmental Variable, and includes the capabilities of individual Team Members, the Team’s frame of mind, and how well the Team synergizes.

Examples

In other words, when estimating Acceptance-Based Stories we need to ignore Impediments caused by Environmental Variables (Organizational Noise, Team Ability, Technical Debt, SME Availability, and others specific to your environment); we ignore the portion of the effort that is based on the Team and the Organization and focus only on the Story’s Intrinsic Difficulty.

However, because of impediments, some StoryPoints are harder than others; some two-point Stories may take more effort than some eight-point Stories – those darned Environmental Variables often get in the way.

Cite This Term

"Environmental Variables" ScrumDictionary.com. Accessed Jun 17, 2025. https://scrumdictionary.com/term/environmental-variables/.