Glossary

Below are a few “hot” buzzwords that I believe many IT Professionals may come across in their organizations:

Agile [Software Development]:

“Agile Software Development is an umbrella term for a set of methods and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the Agile Manifesto.

Solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams utilizing the appropriate practices for their context.”[1]

The Agile Manifesto can be found here: the-agile-manifesto

API:

“An application program interface (API) is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other.”[2]

Business Intelligence

“Business intelligence (BI) leverages software and services to transform data into actionable intelligence that informs an organization’s strategic and tactical business decisions.”[3]

Cloud Computing

“Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and more—over the Internet (“the cloud”).”[4]

Data Lake

“A data lake is a centralized repository that allows you to store all your structured and unstructured data at any scale. You can store your data as-is, without having to first structure the data and run different types of analytics—from dashboards and visualizations to big data processing, real-time analytics, and machine learning to guide better decisions.”[5]

Data Warehouse

“Data warehousing is a technology that aggregates structured data from one or more sources so that it can be compared and analyzed for greater business intelligence.”[6]

DevOPS

“DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to our end users. The contraction of “Dev” and “Ops” refers to replacing siloed Development and Operations to create multidisciplinary teams that now work together with shared and efficient practices and tools. Essential DevOps practices include agile planning, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and monitoring of applications.”[7]

LEAN

“The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.”[8]

Microservice

“The central idea behind microservices is that some types of applications become easier to build and maintain when they are broken down into smaller, composable pieces which work together. Each component is continuously developed and separately maintained, and the application is then simply the sum of its constituent components. This is in contrast to a traditional, “monolithic” application which is all developed all in one piece.”[9]

Image Courtesy of the National Eye Institute

 

 

References:

1. Anon. 2018. What is Agile Software Development? (January 2018). Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/
2. Margaret Rouse. What is application program interface (API)? . Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://searchmicroservices.techtarget.com/definition/application-program-interface-API
3. Mary K. Pratt. 2017. What is BI? Business intelligence strategies and solutions. (September 2017). Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://www.cio.com/article/2439504/business-intelligence/business-intelligence-definition-and-solutions.html
4. Anon. What is cloud computing? A beginner’s guide. Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-cloud-computing/
5. Anon. What is a data lake? Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://aws.amazon.com/big-data/datalakes-and-analytics/what-is-a-data-lake/
6. Anon. What is Data Warehousing: Definition. Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://www.informatica.com/services-and-training/glossary-of-terms/data-warehousing-definition.html
7. Sam Guckenheimer. What is DevOps? Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://www.visualstudio.com/learn/what-is-devops/
8. Anon. What is Lean? Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://www.lean.org/WhatsLean/
9. Anon. What are microservices? Retrieved April 27, 2018 from https://opensource.com/resources/what-are-microservices