This article may be helpful for product owners and stakeholders not familiar with abbreviations frequently used in software development.
You’ve got a great idea for an app and you’re ready to establish what’s required to make it a reality. But during the first scoping meeting you might have encountered a discussion that went something like: “We can’t cut QA to save money, the ACs will not be tested and the PBIs will just increase pushing back the release of the MVP and lowering ROI”. Alright, so you might have recognised that last abbreviation, but if the rest is still a mystery, read on.
As with all app development, the scoping phase is the initial stage where the ones with the vision and the capital, team up with app development experts to flesh out all the possible requirements needed to make your app a reality. This generally includes a Project Manager, Business analysts, Developers, and Designers. We’ve published an informative article on the scoping process you might find useful as it contains common terms not discussed here.
To help you navigate the plethora of abbreviations software development professionals tend to use (and we do use them a lot!) here’s a helpful list of some of the most common ones:
1. PO: Product Owner
Depending on the size of the development, it is the person responsible for the product’s outcome once released for public consumption.
3. BA: Business Analyst
The person responsible for analysing the opportunities, requirements, and capacity of the app, and the resources available to make it a reality. Also, BA’s create the steps (referred to as User Flows) the app must follow to align with the PO’s goals for the product.
5. UX: User Experience
The UI of your product may be beautiful to look at but without considering UX, users may find the app difficult to use and this poor usability may lead to low customer retention. Adjusting your UI so that users find the experience fun and engaging, is UX well executed. The UX of an App is generally informed by analysing qualitative and quantitative feedback of first users and testers of the application.
7. DEV: Software Developer
A technically gifted person in love with coding – creating the foundation and components of the app with the aim to bring to life the concepts, rationale and requirements set out by BA, UI, and UX.
9. SDaaS: Software Developer/s as a Service
Geekseat offers a fully scalable service by providing you with your own software developer without having to commit to permanent staff. SDaaS is a flexible, cost-effective way to expand your software development team.
11. QA: Quality Assurance
This role typically involves ensuring the digital product is without errors and performs as expected. It may involve testing the ACs.
13. MVP: Minimum Viable Product
MVP is the first version of an app that is shipped to the public, with only some of the features available. The MVP becomes the first of many iterations or updates to the application over time. The first customer’s use of the app will provide valuable feedback to adjust the look and functionality for other versions of the app.
15. Web App: Website Application
Not quite an abbreviation but relevant to this list. It is an application pretending to be an app by using your internet browser to display the UI.
17. HTML: Hyper Text Mark-up Language
The code used to display Websites and Web Apps on the internet. Apps are not programmed in HTML.
19. CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
You may have encountered this functionality when completing forms or completing a purchase online. It is a secure way to determine if you are indeed a human interacting with a website or web app and not an API created to hack into the software.
2. PM: Project Manager
One that manages the software development team for the PO.
4. UI: User Interface
UI allows users to interact with devices using a graphic interface. UI Designers are creatively gifted persons that take guidance from POs, PMs and BAs, and are responsible for the layout and placement of buttons, colour, images, text, etc., of all the screens within the application. Up to this point it is still mostly conceptual, and still requires the rationale of why the app looks and behaves the way it does. This is where UX comes in.
6. API: Application Programming Interface
An API is a type of software service between computer programs. UIs connect computers to users, but APIs are programmed by DEV’s to connect with servers or browsers.
8. SaaS: Software as a Service
SaaS is a software solution delivered over the internet that you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis. Accessed via a web browser a SaaS product has many ‘tenants’ all renting the same essential functionality usually with some capacity for configuration to suit each tenant. The platform owner is responsible for updating and managing the software and the entire underlying infrastructure - including middleware - and data, are located in the service provider’s data center. SaaS allows a business to scale fast with minimal upfront cost.
10. AC: Acceptance Criteria
The success of any software development build is dependent on the quality and clarity of AC. It is a form of hypothesis used within scenario-oriented user stories to explain in plain language what needs to happen for an App’s function to achieve its objective. In other words, if the success of an app is simply for users to securely log in then the AC for this user story would be something like: “WHEN – a user enters the correct login details and clicks the secure login button, THEN – the user is given access to the app, AND – the user has securely logged in. AC’s give the developers the clear instructions they need to write the code that executes exactly the functionality the Product Owner is expecting.
12. PBI: Product Backlog Item
A PBI is a single element of work that is scheduled according to priority for the software development team during the development phase of an App. The product backlog is all the items required to create the app. Some POs prioritise PBIs to compile the MVP. PBI’s are often referred to as backlog ‘tickets’.
14. APP: Application
A computer program created with software to work on devices and on computers and must first be downloaded and installed before it can be used. Apps are coded in a variety of programming languages.
16. Website: Internet Site
A marketing site containing any number of pages accessible on the internet via a domain name, that promotes a product or service such as an App. Websites are coded in HTML and may also contain a CMS.
18. CMS: Content Management System
CMS is software programmed by DEVs to make it easy for anyone to create content on the internet without the knowledge of code. This can include websites, online shops, and interactive platforms such as games.
20. MTFBWY: May The Force Be With You
An expression often used by programmers and other specialists on the development team, wishing you good fortune and courage on your App creation journey.
1. PO: Product Owner
Depending on the size of the development, it is the person responsible for the product’s outcome once released for public consumption.
2. PM: Project Manager
One that manages the software development team for the PO.
3. BA: Business Analyst
The person responsible for analysing the opportunities, requirements, and capacity of the app, and the resources available to make it a reality. Also, BA’s create the steps (referred to as User Flows) the app must follow to align with the PO’s goals for the product.
4. UI: User Interface
UI allows users to interact with devices using a graphic interface. UI Designers are creatively gifted persons that take guidance from POs, PMs and BAs, and are responsible for the layout and placement of buttons, colour, images, text, etc., of all the screens within the application. Up to this point it is still mostly conceptual, and still requires the rationale of why the app looks and behaves the way it does. This is where UX comes in.
5. UX: User Experience
The UI of your product may be beautiful to look at but without considering UX, users may find the app difficult to use and this poor usability may lead to low customer retention. Adjusting your UI so that users find the experience fun and engaging, is UX well executed. The UX of an App is generally informed by analysing qualitative and quantitative feedback of first users and testers of the application.
6. API: Application Programming Interface
An API is a type of software service between computer programs. UIs connect computers to users, but APIs are programmed by DEV’s to connect with servers or browsers.
7. DEV: Software Developer
A technically gifted person in love with coding – creating the foundation and components of the app with the aim to bring to life the concepts, rationale and requirements set out by BA, UI, and UX.
8. SaaS: Software as a Service
SaaS is a software solution delivered over the internet that you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis. Accessed via a web browser a SaaS product has many ‘tenants’ all renting the same essential functionality usually with some capacity for configuration to suit each tenant. The platform owner is responsible for updating and managing the software and the entire underlying infrastructure - including middleware - and data, are located in the service provider’s data center. SaaS allows a business to scale fast with minimal upfront cost.
9. SDaaS: Software Developer/s as a Service
Geekseat offers a fully scalable service by providing you with your own software developer without having to commit to permanent staff. SDaaS is a flexible, cost-effective way to expand your software development team.
10. AC: Acceptance Criteria
The success of any software development build is dependent on the quality and clarity of AC. It is a form of hypothesis used within scenario-oriented user stories to explain in plain language what needs to happen for an App’s function to achieve its objective. In other words, if the success of an app is simply for users to securely log in then the AC for this user story would be something like: “WHEN – a user enters the correct login details and clicks the secure login button, THEN – the user is given access to the app, AND – the user has securely logged in. AC’s give the developers the clear instructions they need to write the code that executes exactly the functionality the Product Owner is expecting.
11. QA: Quality Assurance
This role typically involves ensuring the digital product is without errors and performs as expected. It may involve testing the ACs.
12. PBI: Product Backlog Item
A PBI is a single element of work that is scheduled according to priority for the software development team during the development phase of an App. The product backlog is all the items required to create the app. Some POs prioritise PBIs to compile the MVP. PBI’s are often referred to as backlog ‘tickets’.
13. MVP: Minimum Viable Product
MVP is the first version of an app that is shipped to the public, with only some of the features available. The MVP becomes the first of many iterations or updates to the application over time. The first customer’s use of the app will provide valuable feedback to adjust the look and functionality for other versions of the app.
14. APP: Application
A computer program created with software to work on devices and on computers and must first be downloaded and installed before it can be used. Apps are coded in a variety of programming languages.
15. Web App: Website Application
Not quite an abbreviation but relevant to this list. It is an application pretending to be an app by using your internet browser to display the UI.
16. Website: Internet Site
A marketing site containing any number of pages accessible on the internet via a domain name, that promotes a product or service such as an App. Websites are coded in HTML and may also contain a CMS.
17. HTML: Hyper Text Mark-up Language
The code used to display Websites and Web Apps on the internet. Apps are not programmed in HTML.
18. CMS: Content Management System
CMS is software programmed by DEVs to make it easy for anyone to create content on the internet without the knowledge of code. This can include websites, online shops, and interactive platforms such as games.
19. CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
You may have encountered this functionality when completing forms or completing a purchase online. It is a secure way to determine if you are indeed a human interacting with a website or web app and not an API created to hack into the software.
20. MTFBWY: May The Force Be With You
An expression often used by programmers and other specialists on the development team, wishing you good fortune and courage on your App creation journey.
Hopefully, this list has been helpful, and next time you’ll be better informed when abbreviations like the ones mentioned above get used during software development.
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