Glossary

The purpose of this document is to help to demystify the world of software engineering. Unfortunately, ours is a profession ripe with terms that are assumed to be understood. In reality, this system of knowledge is a patchwork. While flexible and sufficient for experienced practitioners, this system is obtuse to newcomers.

Overall, it is the author’s opinion that this opaque nature of software engineering holds the field back – indeed significantly – in a number of important ways.

Without clarity, precision, and shared understanding of language, the field of software engineering is limited to those who can decipher the language and culture around it.

Volumes of books have been written on the topic of software engineering. So what makes this work different?

For one, this resource is open source. The author believes firmly in their responsibility to give back to the community that has benefited them so much.

This work aims to target the starting-to-intermediate software engineer, who does not necessarily have a computer science background. The language used is meant to be plain. The author hopes to communicate in a way that is understandable by the widest possible audience.