Overview
This glossary includes terms frequently used by both the HEE Business and the TIS Team.
Domain Vocabulary
HEE / NHS / Revalidation words
Organisations / Groups
TERM/WORD | What initiated the addition of the Acronym to this list? | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
AoMRC: Academy of Royal Medical Colleges | General NHS / HEE terminology | The body that speaks on standards of care and medical education across the UK |
CCG: Clinical Commissioning Group | General NHS / HEE terminology | Clinically-led statutory NHS bodies responsible for planning & commissioning of health care services for their local area. They replaced PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) in 2013 & there are now 207 CCGs in England (207) |
COPMED: Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans | General NHS / HEE terminology | Provides a focus for those responsible for the strategic overview and operational delivery of postgraduate medical training in the four nations of the UK and by ensuring excellent training, is a key player in maintaining quality of care and patient safety |
DDaT: Digital, Data and Technology | General NHS / HEE terminology | Professional group |
Deanery | General NHS / HEE terminology | There were 13 deaneries across England, responsible for postgraduate medical training |
DHSC: Department of Health and Social Care | General NHS / HEE terminology | Central Government Department - parent Department for HEE |
EoE: East of England | Workforce development away day | One of the 7 Regions |
GDC: General Dental Council | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
GMC: General Medical Council | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
LET: Lead Employer Trust | General NHS / HEE terminology | The LET carry out trainee investigations and handle pay etc. They are recorded on TIS as the “Employing Body”. |
LETBs: Local Education Training Boards | General NHS / HEE terminology | In 2013 the deaneries transferred across to Local Education Training Boards following the enactment of Health and Social Care. The LETB is responsible for the training and education of NHS staff |
NHSE/I: NHS England/Improvement | Workforce development away day | NHS(I) and NHS(E) have come together as a single organisation to better support the NHS and help improve care for patients, following the publication of the Long Term Plan. |
NSHCS | Workforce development away day | National School of Health Care Scientists |
ODS: Organisational Data Service | General NHS / HEE terminology | The Organisation Data Service (ODS) is responsible for publishing organisation and practitioner codes, along with related national policies and standards. We're also responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the organisation and person nodes of the Spine Directory Service, the central data repository used within various NHS systems and services |
ONS: Office for National Statistics | Workforce development away day | Source for population trends and forecasts |
PDGiT: Post-Graduate Doctors in Training | General NHS / HEE terminology | The official new and more specific name for what we used to call “Trainees” |
QRB: Quality Regulatory(?) Board | General NHS / HEE terminology | See QSB. |
QSB: Quality Scrutiny Board | General NHS / HEE terminology | Now renamed to QRB |
RCN: Royal College of Nursing | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
ROG: Revalidation Operational Group | General NHS / HEE terminology | The Revalidation Operational Group support the delivery of revalidation for doctors in training to meet the relevant statutory obligations and extra statutory guidance |
Royal College | General NHS / HEE terminology | A professional body responsible for development and training in one or more specialities, devise curricula |
School | General NHS / HEE terminology | Verify that curricula are delivered correctly |
School, medical | General NHS / HEE terminology | University where students perform their undergraduate studies |
SHA: Strategic Health Authority | General NHS / HEE terminology | An NHS organisation established to lead the strategic development of the local health service and manage Primary Care Trusts and NHS Trusts on the basis of local accountability agreements |
SML: Subject Matter Leads | General NHS / HEE terminology | AKA Subject Matter Experts - members of a wider stakeholder group who can assist the Product Owners by providing specialist knowledge on elements of the project |
SMT: Senior Management Team | Workforce development away day | A group of people overseeing a programme of work, usually reporting into an HEE Director |
Specialty Teams | General NHS / HEE terminology | The team involved in the educational side of trainee doctors rather than the revalidation side |
UCAS | Workforce development away day | ? (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service)? |
Terms / Roles
TERM/WORD | What initiated the addition of the Acronym to this list? | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
AIA workstream | Workforce development away day | ? |
ACCS: Acute Care Common Stem | General NHS / HEE terminology | A core programme of Acute medicine, ICU – Intensive Care, Anaesthetics and EM – Emergency Medicine (From https://healtheducationengland.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/HEEVirtualIndCOM/Shared%20Documents/Acronyms%20and%20Terms%20February%202020.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=NOnKvN) |
ARCP: Annual Review of Competence Progression | General NHS / HEE terminology | ARCP process was introduced in 2007. Provides an assessment of a trainee's suitability to progress to their next stage of training or to complete their training program. The process is undertaken annually. The National Guidance regarding the process is described in the ‘Guide to Postgraduate Specialty Training in the UK’ (The Gold Guide) |
BDRW: Building a Digital Ready Workforce | Workforce development away day | Initiative to ensure new recruits are appropriately skilled for the digital demands of today and the known future |
BM: Business Manager | General NHS / HEE terminology | Lead for a Programme of work within HEE |
CCT: Certificate of Completion of Training | General NHS / HEE terminology | A CCT confirms that a doctor has completed an approved (see the table below) training programme in the UK and is eligible for entry onto the GP Register or the Specialist Register |
CEGPR: Certificate of Eligibility of GP Registration | General NHS / HEE terminology | These represent different routes to train and achieve CCT without a training number. There are specific requirements for each specialty see link: https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-the-register/registration-applications/specialty-specific-guidance-for-cesr-and-cegpr |
CESR: Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration | General NHS / HEE terminology | A CESR confirms that a doctor has completed sufficient training outside of an approved UK training programme and is eligible for entry onto the GP Register or the Specialist Register. It is considered equivalent to that needed to achieve a CCT. |
Clinical Supervisor | General NHS / HEE terminology | Each trainee must have a named clinical supervisor for each placement to ensure that educational governance requirements are met. They should be appropriately trained to be responsible for overseeing a specified trainee’s clinical work and providing constructive feedback during a training placement. (Gold Guide) |
Collective Reports | General NHS / HEE terminology | A list of trainees who have been in an organisation for the last six months - happens retrospectively and on a six month basis |
CPD: Continuing Professional Development | General NHS / HEE terminology | Measured in points |
CPPS: Career, performance and professional support | General NHS / HEE terminology | One of the Hicom add-on modules for Intrepid |
CT1/CT2 | General NHS / HEE terminology | Core training programmes currently offered for Psychiatry, Surgery (CST) and Medicine (IMT). IMT which has been extended to 3 years for some training pathways https://www.jrcptb.org.uk/internal-medicineTrainees select from a range of specialties during the second year of their core training programme (From https://healtheducationengland.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/HEEVirtualIndCOM/Shared%20Documents/Acronyms%20and%20Terms%20February%202020.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=NOnKvN) |
Curriculum | General NHS / HEE terminology | A set of demonstrated competencies developed by the GMC and Royal Colleges. Also see |
Digital Marketplace | General NHS / HEE terminology | The revised name of the G-Cloud store in which the public sector can commission suppliers to work on digital projects by the Digital Services Framework. Results in the hiring of DOS contractors. |
Doctor's Revalidation | General NHS / HEE terminology | The process by which licensed doctors are required to demonstrate on a regular basis that they are up to date and fit to practice |
DOPS: Direct Observation of Procedural Skills | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
DRN: Deanery Reference Number | General NHS / HEE terminology | Formed of Appointment Year / Speciality code / Type of contract / Deanery or LETB, e.g. "09/CMT/C0001/EE" |
Dual training | General NHS / HEE terminology | Some specialties allow for qualifying in more than one related specialty. The GMC has an approved list of dual specialities https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/GMC_list_of_approved_Dual_CCT_pairings_October_2017.pdf_72297006.pdf |
Educational Supervisor | General NHS / HEE terminology | A named trainer who is selected and appropriately trained to be responsible for the overall supervision and management of a specified trainee's educational progress during a training placement or series of placements. The educational supervisor is jointly responsible with the trainee for the trainee's educational agreement.(Gold Guide: page 17) |
Employee Liaison Officer | General NHS / HEE terminology | An adviser who visits the revalidation team on a quarterly basis to discuss incidents, revalidations etc |
EoE: East of England | Workforce development away day | One of the 7 Regions |
e-Portfolio | General NHS / HEE terminology | An integral part of a trainee's education and professional development |
ESR: NHS electronic staff record | General NHS / HEE terminology | The HR and payroll database used across the NHS |
Form R | General NHS / HEE terminology | Has 2 parts. Part A is trainee registration form (contact & post info); Part B is self declaration form declaring fitness to practice concerns prior to ARCP |
Foundation competencies | General NHS / HEE terminology | These are the competencies which must be signed off as passed by the end of the foundation period. These are valid for 3 years. If a trainee ‘times out’ on the validity of these competencies (taking too long a Gap period or having been in a non-patient facing role for more than 3 years and wish to transfer to a patient facing role (eg Histopathology to GP) they must arrange for them to be ‘signed off’ in another way. This certificate is sometimes known as CREST Certificate of readiness to enter specialty training (https://www.oriel.nhs.uk/Web/ResourceBank/Edit/MTA3NA%3D%3D) |
FY1: Foundation Year 1 | General NHS / HEE terminology | The first year of training following medical school aimed to give the trainee a broad experience in which theyundertake3 rotations. Trainees have some limited choice over what rotations they undertake. (From https://healtheducationengland.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/HEEVirtualIndCOM/Shared%20Documents/Acronyms%20and%20Terms%20February%202020.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=NOnKvN) |
FY2: Foundation Year 2 | General NHS / HEE terminology | The second year of training following medical school (From https://healtheducationengland.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/HEEVirtualIndCOM/Shared%20Documents/Acronyms%20and%20Terms%20February%202020.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=NOnKvN) |
F3 Year | General NHS / HEE terminology | The unofficial name of the GAP year doctors may take out between FY2 and Specialty training (From https://healtheducationengland.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/HEEVirtualIndCOM/Shared%20Documents/Acronyms%20and%20Terms%20February%202020.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=NOnKvN) |
Green Files | General NHS / HEE terminology | Files for doctors in difficulty. These are controlled by the professional support manager |
GRID | General NHS / HEE terminology | GRID This is a 2-3 year national paediatric training scheme which is open to paediatric trainees wishing to sub-specialise (rather than continue in general paediatrics). The NTN GRID Scheme begins at Level 3 of training (ST6-ST8). It allows trainees to compete for national posts, rather than just within their training area. This is of particular interest to those with a highly specialised sub-specialty where there are very few consultant posts and therefore concerns about career progression post-CCT. http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/training-examinations-professional-development/specialty-recruitment/sub-specialty-training-ntn-grid#whatisthe |
HCS: Health Care Science | General NHS / HEE terminology | HCS have their own LMS(see below) based on a small access database but they are looking at moving to TIS |
HORUS | General NHS / HEE terminology | This is the e portfolio in which all Foundation Doctors in England record their learning and work-related activity. This document is shared with their supervisors and forms the basis of non-exam assessment of competenceas part of their training. https://supporthorus.hee.nhs.uk/about-horus/what-is-horus |
Host Employer/Trust | General NHS/ESR/HEE | The Trust or NHS Organisation where a DiT has their placement for training. They are recorded on TIS as the “Training Body”. |
Ideas Lab / iLab / DITAG | General NHS / HEE terminology | Process by which anyone in HEE can put forward an idea that then gets evaluated to feasibility and potentially turned into a project or product enhancement |
IDT: Inter-deanery transfer | General NHS / HEE terminology | A process in place to help trainees that need to move area due to unforeseen circumstances. |
In house service | General NHS / HEE terminology | To produce a service or system internally rather than from an external source |
Integrated Assurance Approval | General NHS / HEE terminology | The planning, co-ordination and provision of assurance activities and approval points through the lifecycle of the trainee information management system |
Intrepid | General NHS / HEE terminology | Name of old system that TIS replaced, used across all LETBs. Provided by Hicom |
ISCP: Inter-collegiate Surgical Curriculum Program | General NHS / HEE terminology | The curriculum for 10 surgical specialities and a number of dental specialities |
ITP: Integrated Training Post | General NHS / HEE terminology | Integrated Training Posts are to allow the GP Trainee, although based in General Practice, to have a variety of other educational attachments outside General Practice. Often half of their time is spent in a Hospital Specialism or other area associated with health care |
LAS: Locum Appointment for Service | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
Learners | General NHS / HEE terminology | Learner could include a trainer (i.e. someone who has already completed their training) undertaking a course for CPD |
Live Flow | General NHS / HEE terminology | A system that allows Local Education Partners to report in on an incident by incident basis to the revalidation officer and postgraduate dean |
LMS: Learning Management System | General NHS / HEE terminology | E.g. moodle, an online learning space |
Long Term Plan | General NHS / HEE terminology | The document / website focused on future gazing to ensure the NHS is fit for purpose in 10 years time. |
LRMP: List of Registered Medical Practitioners | General NHS / HEE terminology | You can use the List of Registered Medical Practitioners - also known as the medical register - to check details of all the doctors who are registered with the General Medical Council |
LTFT: Less than full time | General NHS / HEE terminology | There are a number of reasons why you may want to consider less than full-time training. Spending time with your baby or child is not the only reason. You might be caring for an ill or disabled partner, relative or other dependent, or have a disability or health problem yourself. If you are undertaking certain kinds of professional development it may also be possible to be accepted for LTFT |
MCQ: Multiple Choice questions | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
MRCP: Member of the Royal College of Physicians | General NHS / HEE terminology | This links to the information about the exams taken to become a member of the Royal College. Many trainee doctors in the second year of Foundation training will attempt Part 1 of the MRCP exams and this will count as the first of the 6 opportunities.https://www.mrcpuk.org |
MRCS: Member of the Royal College of Surgeons | General NHS / HEE terminology | This is the link to the information on exams https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/education-and-exams/exams |
MSF: Multisource feedback | General NHS / HEE terminology | i.e. 360 degree feedback on performance |
National Deferral Policy | General NHS / HEE terminology | Info around when a doctor can or can't be deferred |
NDW: National Data Warehouse | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
NETS | Workforce development away day | ? (National Educational Training Scheme????) |
Not directly commissioned | General NHS / HEE terminology | The term used to describe training posts that are not managed and where there is no direct relationship with HEE and are predominantly trust based; this may include undergraduate trainees, nursing and midwifery |
NR: National Repository | General NHS / HEE terminology | |
NTN: National Training Number | General NHS / HEE terminology | Formed of Deanery or LETB code / Speciality Code/ Number / Suffix, e.g. LON/002/003/C. |
ODS: Organisational Data Service | General NHS / HEE terminology | The Organisation Data Service (ODS) is responsible for publishing organisation and practitioner codes, along with related national policies and standards. We're also responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the organisation and person nodes of the Spine Directory Service, the central data repository used within various NHS systems and services |
OLAT: Online Learning and Assessment Tool | General NHS / HEE terminology | The HCS e-Portfolio |
OOPs: Out of Programmes | General NHS / HEE terminology | There are four of them - Experience (OOPE), Training (OOPT), Research (OOPR) and Career Break (OOPC). These are approved periods for trainees to be out of training for education, career break, training or research. Trainees will retain their training number and can access our services during these periods. New later this year (2020 OOPP ie Out of programme pause aimed to be more flexible in takingbreaks from training) |
ORIEL | General NHS / HEE terminology | Recruitment System |
PLAB: Professional and Linguistic and Assessment Board | General NHS / HEE terminology | This is an exam for internationally qualified doctors https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/Guidance_for_decision_makers___GDM2a___Considering_whether_it_is_FSTD_arising_from_attempts_at_the_PLAB_test___DC9471.pdf_68053697.pdf |
Portfolio | General NHS / HEE terminology | This is a dynamic record of a healthcare professional’s career to date. It comprises evidence of achievements, skills, qualities and qualifications, using testimonials, appraisals and other forms of personal feedback. This link sets out details of what is included in a portfolio and how it is used (eg appraisals, recruitment): https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/developing-your-career/learning-and-development/your-portfolio |
Programme | General NHS / HEE terminology | See Programmes - Programme memberships. A Programme is a Local Office instance of a curriculum. The Office applies to the GMC for approval to train a Curriculum and have to show sign off by the College of that Curriculum. However a Programme can be accredited against more than 1 curriculum |
QIP: Quality Improvement Project | General NHS / HEE terminology | Trainee doctors are often required to complete one of these during training. Sometimes experience difficulty in completing these as rotations are not always long enough to complete the audit, recommendations, testing and review cycle. |
Responsible Officer | General NHS / HEE terminology | The Responsible Officer Regulations give specified senior doctors (responsible officers) in certain organisations (designated bodies) functions that will ensure that all doctors work within a managed environment, in which their performance, conduct and behaviour are monitored against agreed national standards.This person is generally the Postgraduate Dean for a specified geographical area |
Revalidation Recommendation | General NHS / HEE terminology | A recommendation to revalidate - can be made up to four months ahead of revalidation |
RITA: Review of in Training Assessments | General NHS / HEE terminology | ARCP process applies to all Specialty Trainees & replaces RITA which continues to operate for existing Specialist Registrars until they have completed their training |
RMT: Reconciliation and Medical Trainee | General NHS / HEE terminology | Deanery Reconciliation and Medical Trainee Full File received on Day 1 from ESR |
Rotations | General NHS / HEE terminology | These are the periods of time spent by trainees in specific specialty areas. Foundation trainees generally do 6x4 month rotations across two years; core trainees do a minimum of 4 rotations across 2 years but this may sometimes be increased to 6 to give a broader experience in some areas. Other specialty trainees this number is roughly 2 rotations of 6 months every year but again this may vary according to the breadth of experience required |
SIAM: System Integration and Management | General NHS / HEE terminology | Allows an organisation to manage different service providers in a consistent and effective manner across a portfolio of multi-sourced goods |
SPC: Specialty Program Co-ordinator | General NHS / HEE terminology | The individual that looks after the trainee in their specific locality. They are also involved in ARCPs and act as the trainee's administrator (they fill out e-Portfolio etc) |
ST1 - ST8 | General NHS / HEE terminology | These are the training grades for all doctor's training programmes. Different programmes are different lengths e.g. GP is ST1–ST3; Paediatrics ST1–ST8. |
STEP: System-wide Training and Employment Passport | General NHS / HEE terminology | An "online system that will allow the transfer of training and employment information between organisations to support the greater mobility of the healthcare workforce." As of Nov 2019, it appears to still be under development. |
Streamlining Staff Movements | General NHS / HEE terminology | A collaboration between NHS employers, skills for health and London HR and Workforce Directors which aims to reduce the time and expenditure involved in recruiting and training staff, as well as in the changeover of junior doctors |
Tableau | Workforce development away day | Tool used in HEE to visualise data (aggregated from TIS, Hicom modules and other sources) |
TCS: TIS Core Services | General NHS / HEE terminology | The service that manages the core People, Programmes and Posts entities along with their dependencies |
TIS: Trainee Information System | General NHS / HEE terminology | The web App the TIS Team are building |
Topol | General NHS / HEE terminology | A review carried out by Dr Eric Topol for HEE, exploring how to prepare the healthcare workforce, through education and training, to deliver the digital future: see https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/topol-review |
TPD: Training Programme Director | General NHS / HEE terminology | TPD has responsibility for managing foundation or specialty training programmes provided to NHS doctors |
Trainee | General NHS / HEE terminology | Junior doctor, dentist, pharmacist or healthcare scientist |
UCAS | Workforce development away day | ? (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service)? |
Other / Unknown
TERM/WORD | What initiated the addition of the Acronym to this list? | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
AGDC | Workforce development away day | ? |
AHCS | Workforce development away day | ? |
ASP | Workforce development away day | ? |
CDC | Workforce development away day | ? (Central Dental Council?) |
DOFA | Workforce development away day | ? |
GAP | Workforce development away day | ? |
GMA | Workforce development away day | ? |
GMTS | Workforce development away day | ? |
HEED | Workforce development away day | ? |
HEFT | Workforce development away day | HEE Flow Tool |
HEI students and dentists | Workforce development away day | ? |
HERMES | Workforce development away day | HEE Employment, Regulation, and Medical Education Supply tool |
HESA | Workforce development away day | Higher Education Statistics Agency |
HIS | Workforce development away day | ? |
HL/HA | Workforce development away day | ? |
HSST | Workforce development away day | ? |
ICS | Workforce development away day | Integrated Care System |
IPP | Workforce development away day | ? |
LDA | TOG | Learning and Development Agreement |
LESR | Workforce development away day | ? |
LMC | Workforce development away day | ? |
MERP | Workforce development away day | ? |
NETS | Workforce development away day | National Educational Training Survey |
OFS | Workforce development away day | Office for Students (was HEFCE) |
PIVO | Workforce development away day | ? |
RTP | Workforce development away day | Return To Practice (Nursing) |
SIP | Workforce development away day | Staff In Post (ESR) |
STP | Workforce development away day | Sustainability and Transformation Partnership. There are 44 geographical Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) 'footprints' in England that have been asked to produce a long-term plan outlining how local health and care services will evolve, improve and continue over the next five years. STP footprints are not statutory bodies, but collective discussion forums which aim to bring together health and care leaders to support the delivery of improved health and care based on the needs of local populations. Source: https://www.neessexccg.nhs.uk/sustainability-and-transformation-plan |
TRG | Workforce development away day | ? |
UG | Workforce development away day | ? |
UP&I | Workforce development away day | ? |
Agile Product Delivery / Digital terms
[Bold denotes full form acronym | Italics indicates linked definitions]
Word/Term | What initiated the addition of the Acronym to this list? | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
AC: Acceptance criteria | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A pass/fail set of descriptions of how a User Story can be tested to determine whether it has been 'done'. |
Agile | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A project management framework focusing on delivering small products as quickly as possible, then incrementally adding to them. |
API: Application Program Interface | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A set of routines, protocols and tools for building software, and defining how different software components should interact with each other |
Backlog | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The list of everything that could be done by the project team if time was not a factor. This is usually subdivided into the Sprint Backlog and the Product Backlog. Occasionally, there is a further subdivision Next Up, indicating the highest priority items of the Product Backlog to work on, once the Sprint Backlog is complete |
BDD: Behaviour Driven Development | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Aims to help focus development on the delivery of prioritised, verifiable business value by providing a common specification language, that spans the divide between business and tech |
Blocker | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Something that prevents one or more stories being completed. It is the job of the Scrum Master to help remove these blockers |
Burndown | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A chart that shows the amount of effort or number of stories that are in the backlog and how they are being completed over time (usually a Sprint) |
Confluence | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The web application where we store all the project information and documentation that supports the backlog - linked to Jira |
CQRS: Command Query Responsibility Segregation | Development in the TIS Team | Segregating the model used to update information from the model used to read information.  |
CRUD: Create, Read, Update, Delete | Creation of Agile TIS Team | |
DevOps | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A concept, not a Job title! This concept is characterised by the three pillars. Increasing the flow from left to right - the speed with which work gets done. Increasing the flow from right to left - the speed with which any issues are detected. And continuous learning - the degree to which the team and the product evolves. In over-simplistic terms DevOps is a movement to write infrastructure as code, blurring the lines between the traditional Operations person and the traditional Developer, such that the the Developer can ultimately own the whole process of Ops themselves. Ops is no longer an end-of-process bottleneck. |
Discovery | Sometimes, a phase (often time-boxed) of:
| |
DBC: Designated Body Code | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Most licensed doctors have a connection with one organisation that provides them with an annual appraisal and helps them with revalidation. This organisation is called your ‘designated body’. Only UK organisations can be designated bodies, because the legal rules that determine this only cover the UK |
DoD / Done: Definition of Done | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Sometimes a statement within a User Story, describing what 'Done' looks like, more usually expressed as a set of Acceptance Criteria. |
DSPT: Data Security and Protection Toolkit | Invited to a meeting about it | NHS(D) online self-assessment tool for any organisations to test their performance against National Data Guardian’s 10 data security standards (regarding holding / using patient data): https://dsptoolkit.nhs.uk |
Effort | Creation of Agile TIS Team | An estimation of complexity, repetitiveness, etc.
It can be used either at a very high level with Roadmap items, or at a micro-level with Jira tickets (especially useful in Scrum). |
Epic | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The highest level of requirement in the backlog - this is too big to be worked on within a Sprint and needs to be refined into one or more User Stories |
ETL: Extract, Transform, Load | Approach to moving data into and out of TIS | A way of taking data from one place/system and re-presenting it in another |
Incremental / Iterative development | Creation of Agile TIS Team | These terms are often confused, leading to unintentional breakdowns in communication. This article really eloquently explains these two concepts visually. Well worth a read |
Iteration | Creation of Agile TIS Team | See "Sprint" |
Jira | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The web application where we store the backlog, run the Sprints and communicate on progress |
Kanban | Team transition c. 2021-01 | Kanban (a Japanese word meaning signboard or billboard) is a scheduling system for lean development. Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency. Kanban takes its name from the cards that track production. Focus of this system is detailing the steps of the process, increasing throughput between those steps, concentrating on value-adding steps, reducing waste, minimising work in progress. Characteristics are a visible work board made up of each column of workflow steps. WIP limits on each column and a relentless drive to ensuring once a piece of work is started, it is finished as quickly as possible. Measurement of team’s effectiveness in kanban is through Lead (first recording of item to be worked on, until the point work begins) and Cycle (point at which work begins on an item until that item is “Done”) times.  https://www.projectwizards.net/en/blog/2019/01/kanban-corepractices |
LeSS | Team transition c. 2019-09 | Large-Scaled Scrum. A scaled framework for a group of separate Scrum teams to work together within an organisation. Focus of this framework is to provide a balance between flexibility of each team and consistency of approach. Characteristic of this framework is splitting some of the Scrum ceremonies into two parts, a whole team element and an individual team one. For example, Planning#1 would be a whole team activity determining which Product Backlog Items would be handled by which Scrum team. Planning#2 would be follow up sessions held by each Scrum team to take those PBIs and determine the Sprint backlog from them. Normally, LeSS would have a single Review session, and then split the Retros into individual Scrum team Retros followed by an overall team Retro (where representatives of each Scrum team would come together to tease out common challenges/best practice. Stand ups would also be separated per Scrum Team.  |
MMF: Minimal Marketable Feature | Creation of Agile TIS Team | An incremental layer that can be added to the MVP and released to the public |
MVP: Minimum Viable Product | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The simplest version of the product that could in and of itself be deployed into a public environment as quickly as possible in order to provide value to the customer and to provide the Agile team with continuous feedback (which can be evaluated, prioritised and fed back into the Product Backlog. Onto this MVP, we layer on MMFs to continually enhance a released product |
NDG: National Data Guardian | DSPT | Independent, non-regulatory, advice-giving body for data confidentiality, security and patient data choice. |
PAG: Process Alignment Group | Nationalisation of service offered by TIS | Cross-HEE group to ensure all local offices adopt a nationalised process to support the SOP (see below) |
Priority | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Work needs prioritising in order to determine the sequence the team works through development |
Product Backlog | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Those stories that are either: |
PO: Product Owner | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A member of the team that owns the Product Backlog and advises on prioritisation of work. At HEE the PO is also referred to as a Service Manager |
PR: Pull Request | Dev team collaboration using Git | When a dev requests to pull in new code to the Development environment, for example |
Scrum | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A Product Development / Project Management framework encouraging Agile thinking Focus: Regular iterations, potentially shippable product increment available at the end of each increment, predictability, collaboration, inspect and adapt, transparency, team autonomy and ownership. Characteristics: Simplicity. Scrum is an incredibly flexible framework, not a prescriptive methodology. Sprint Ceremonies - Planning, Stand ups, Review and Retrospectives, along with backlog refinement. Three accountabilities - Product Owner, Scrum Master and the Team. Three artifacts - The product backlog, the Sprint backlog and the Product increment.  |
SM: Scrum Master | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A member of the team who facilitates the activities so that the Sprint can complete. Also monitors and reports on progress to the wider stakeholders |
SOP: Standard Operating Procedures | Nationalisation of service offered by TIS | Agreement as to best practice ways of working across all local offices (Joanne Watson (Unlicensed) / Alistair Pringle (Unlicensed) ??) |
Sprint | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A short period of time (from 2 - 4 weeks) in which a team work on a set of Users Stories that they commit to completing during Sprint Planning. A 2-week Sprint is the most common cycle. Sometimes called an iteration |
Sprint Backlog | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Those stories taken from the Product Backlog that the team has committed to completing, during Sprint Planning, within the current Sprint |
Sprint Planning | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The meeting at the start of each Sprint where all the committed team agree what tasks/stories should be brought into that Sprint |
Sprint Retrospective | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A meeting at the end of every Sprint where the Agile team gather amongst themselves, and analyse what went well, what they could have done better, any impediments to progress, and take actions to be more productive in the next Sprint / remove any impediments |
Sprint Review | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A meeting at the end of the Sprint to review what was achieved - i.e. to celebrate success with stakeholders outside the team, and invite their input into future direction for the project. With a big stakeholder group, this can be split off into a separate meeting for POs and specific Devs to present (sometimes referred to as a 'Show and tell', but which should also invite comments too) |
SSH | DevOps in TIS Team | Should be written SSh really - Secure Shell: a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. The best known example application is for remote login to computer systems by users |
Standup | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The daily meeting at which all committed team members update the team on their progress. Typically by giving a 30 second update on what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today and any impediments they have encountered. The last of these is where they may request assistance from colleagues, or the Scrum Master - which is normally discussed directly after the standup. |
User Story | Creation of Agile TIS Team | Often shortened to just 'Story'. A collection of sentences that capture a single requirement of either a system or a user. |
TDD: Test Driven Development | Creation of Agile TIS Team | An approach to development that begins with determining how the 'code' will be tested, then building the code to the tests |
Value | Creation of Agile TIS Team | A concept that collates many things: value to the business, value to the user, cost of not doing the work, opportunity enabled from doing the work etc |
Velocity | Creation of Agile TIS Team | The term used to describe measuring the progress of a Sprint within the team. And the likely ability for a team to complete upcoming work. Note: this is not for presenting to stakeholders outside the project team |
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