| Agile |
Iterative and incremental development methodology focusing on collaboration, customer feedback, and rapid delivery of small, functional software increments. |
| API |
Application Programming Interface; a set of defined methods and protocols that allow interaction between different software components. |
| Branch |
Independent line of development in version control, allowing work on features or fixes without affecting the main codebase. |
| Build |
Process of transforming source code into executable artifacts, typically involving compilation, linking, and packaging. |
| Code Coverage |
Metric that indicates the percentage of source code exercised by automated tests, used to assess test completeness. |
| Code Review |
Systematic examination of source code by peers to identify defects, improve code quality, and share knowledge. |
| Continuous Deployment (CD) |
Practice of automatically deploying every code change that passes the integration pipeline directly to production. |
| Continuous Integration (CI) |
Practice of frequently merging code changes into a shared repository and running automated builds and tests to detect integration issues early. |
| Debugging |
Process of identifying, diagnosing, and fixing defects or unexpected behavior in software. |
| Design |
Process of planning the architecture, components, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified requirements. |
| Design Patterns |
Reusable solutions to common software design problems, representing best practices and templates (e.g., Singleton, Observer, Factory Method). |
| DevOps |
Cultural and technical practice that unifies software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten delivery cycles and improve quality. |
| Implementation |
Phase where software design is translated into code, writing and integrating components to fulfill design specifications. |
| IDE |
Integrated Development Environment; software suite combining a code editor, compiler/interpreter, debugger, and other development tools. |
| Merge |
Operation in version control that combines changes from one branch into another, reconciling differences between them. |
| Pull Request |
Request to merge code changes from one branch into another, often including discussion, review, and approval workflows. |
| Refactoring |
Process of restructuring existing code without changing its external behavior to improve readability, maintainability, or performance. |
| Scrum |
Agile framework for managing work with defined roles, events, and artifacts, organized into fixed-length iterations called sprints. |
| SDLC |
Software Development Life Cycle; structured process for planning, designing, building, testing, deploying, and maintaining software. |
| Sprint |
Fixed-duration iteration in Scrum during which a set of prioritized work items is completed and prepared for review. |
| Software Architecture |
High-level structure of a software system, defining its components, their interactions, and guiding design principles. |
| Testing |
Process of executing a system or its components to evaluate whether they meet specified requirements and to detect defects. |
| Unit Test |
Automated test that verifies the correctness of a small, isolated piece of code—typically a single function or class method. |
| Version Control |
System for tracking changes to source code over time, enabling collaboration, history tracking, and rollback (e.g., Git). |
| Waterfall |
Linear SDLC model where each phase (requirements, design, implementation, verification, maintenance) must complete before the next begins. |