Glossary
Plain-English software glossary
The terms that come up in software engagements — defined the way a senior engineer would actually explain them on a project call. No marketing fluff.
SaaS (Software as a Service)
Software delivered over the internet on a subscription, typically multi-tenant and accessed via a browser or app.
Read definition →Multi-Tenancy
One software application serving many distinct customer organisations from shared infrastructure with isolated data.
Read definition →RBAC (Role-Based Access Control)
Access-control model where permissions are granted to roles, and users inherit permissions by being assigned to roles.
Read definition →RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
AI pattern where an LLM generates answers from documents retrieved at query time, rather than from training data alone.
Read definition →LLM (Large Language Model)
A neural-network model trained on large text corpora to generate, summarise, classify and reason over text and code.
Read definition →Vector Database
A database optimised for storing and querying high-dimensional vectors (embeddings) by similarity.
Read definition →Embeddings
Dense numerical vector representations of text, images or audio that capture semantic similarity.
Read definition →SSO (Single Sign-On)
Authentication scheme that lets users sign in once with one identity provider and access many applications.
Read definition →SOC 2
An auditable framework for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy controls.
Read definition →Core Web Vitals
Google's standardised performance metrics: LCP (loading), INP (interactivity) and CLS (visual stability).
Read definition →SSR vs SSG vs ISR
Three rendering strategies: server-rendered on each request (SSR), pre-rendered at build (SSG), or pre-rendered and revalidated (ISR).
Read definition →React Server Components (RSC)
React components that render exclusively on the server, ship no client JavaScript and can stream their output.
Read definition →CI / CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery)
Automated pipelines that run tests on every commit (CI) and deploy validated builds to environments (CD).
Read definition →IaC (Infrastructure as Code)
Defining cloud infrastructure (servers, networks, databases, IAM) in declarative configuration files instead of clicking through consoles.
Read definition →KYC (Know Your Customer)
Regulatory process for verifying customer identity in financial-services products.
Read definition →Headless CMS
A content management system that exposes content via APIs only, leaving the front-end unconstrained.
Read definition →Lighthouse
Google's open-source tool for auditing web pages on performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO.
Read definition →API (Application Programming Interface)
A defined contract that lets one software system call functionality or data from another.
Read definition →Idempotency
A property of an operation where executing it once or many times produces the same result.
Read definition →Microservices vs Modular Monolith
Microservices split an app into independently-deployable services; modular monoliths split internally but deploy as one.
Read definition →