A spike is a sharp rise in the frequency for a given variable, usually immediately followed by a decrease. This sort of transient variation is often seen in the measurement of voltage or current in circuits.
In agile software development, a spike is a story that cannot be estimated until a development team runs a timeboxed investigation. The output of a spike story is an estimate for the original story.
In online gaming, a spike is a tactic whereby one or several players simultaneously inflict a massive amount of damage upon a single player or target, overwhelming the capacity of that target to regenerate or self-heal.
This was last updated in March 2008
Dig Deeper
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Software consultant Nari Kannan describes how agile practices and work can be scaled appropriately for success in large organizations. Using lean thinking, reduction of waste, and appropriately organizing work and people, agile can be successfully adapted, regardless of the size of the organization.
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Undiscovered software glitches in complex systems are common, and one of the primary drivers is the loss of mainframe knowledge of a retiring workforce. Software glitches are lurking in many large systems, particularly mainframe systems, and the COBOL programmers that understand the code best are retiring, according to Jeff Papows, author of the new book, "Glitch - The hidden impact of faulty software." Papows describes how faulty software caused a huge charge to debit card holder's account and why such mistakes are on the rise in this interview. Papows notes the three most pressing drivers for software glitches: loss of intellectual knowledge, market consolidation and the ubiquity of technology
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Karen Johnson explains the situations in which SQL skills are important for a software tester as well as times when the expertise is not required.
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