Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) is an effective and efficient tool for point-specific measurements of crystallographic orientation in polycrystalline materials. One application of considerable interest has been the quantitative characterization of strain and dislocation structures at the sub-micron scale. To extract the most information with as much accuracy as possible, a thorough understanding of the underlying principles and practical application is required. Analysis of both elastic and plastic strain is explored first through the analysis of individual EBSD patterns and then extended to EBSD mapping. Both the current state and emerging EBSD technology for both conventional EBSD and High-Resolution EBSD (HR-EBSD) are reviewed. Complementary techniques that can be used in conjunction with EBSD are shown to provide additional insight into the characterization of strain in the microstructure.