The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

Glossary

API (application programming interface):

The way that any program makes itself available to other programs. Basically, it's a list of recipes programmers use to build systems from completely separate parts.

Automated build system:

A system that automatically puts together all the software parts of a system, and tests it. This may include hundreds of parts that are worked on by hundreds of people every day.

Automated reporting system:

A system that reports on project quality, project readiness, team processes, and policy adherence.

BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web services):

A language that is sort of halfway between a natural human language and a computer language. You use it to create models of how you want your business to work; it can then be turned into computer code by programmers.

Enterprise platform:

An environment for running applications throughout a large, often widely distributed corporation.

LOC:

Lines of "source" code, the stuff actually written by programmers before it is translated into computer codes.

Problem-tracking system:

A system used to track and manage the defects and change requests reported for application.

Regression test suite:

A set of tests that check whether the application is producing the expected results. To regress means to go backwards, so these tests make sure that even as you add new capability to a system, you do not break anything that was already working.

Requirement:

The definition of a business ...