Because this is a technical subject which contains loads of jargon, I will be maintaining and adding to a Glossary page which will evolve over time. Please comment if I use any term that you are unfamiliar with or feel should be added to this page. Please comment if you feel that my “Succinct Explanations” could be made more accurate (or more succinct).
Agile Approach
- Succinct Explanation: A recently popularized family of methodologies that are aimed at (among other things) focusing a development team on business objectives translated into technical features with ongoing interactions with the Project Sponsor(s) (people who understand the business objectives of the project). Software built in this way always is built “iteratively” (in small phases).
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: Why SaaS?
- Great external explanations: Agile Software Development on Wikipedia | The Agile Manifesto
Application Programme Interface (API)
- Succinct Explanation: An interface which allows third party applications to request data and have it returned back to them in a predefined format and according to specific rules.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: What is SaaS?
- Great external explanations: API on Wikipedia
Change Control (IT)
- Succinct Explanation: A set of procedures put together to ensure the absolute minimum possible amount of disruption in service experienced by end users of a system when a change is made to the system.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: Why SaaS?
- Great external explanations: Change Control on Wikipedia
Content, Communications and Collaboration (CCC)
- Succinct Explanation: Systems that enable the creation, management and sharing of content (text, imagery, video etc.) within a team/organizational context
Communication Enabled Business Process (CEBP)
- Succinct Explanation: Systems that optimize organizational efficiency by by reducing the human latency that exists within the process flow
- Great external explanations: CEBP on Wikipedia
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Succinct Explanation: Describes the systems that organizations put in place to manage it’s contact/communication with its clients
- Great external explanations: CRM on Wikipedia
Digital Content Creation (DCC)
- Succinct Explanation: Software tools that enable the user to create content (images, video, audio, animation etc.) digitally
- Great external explanations: DCC on Wikipedia
Innovation Economy
- External Discussion Article: ReadWriteWeb: How Decoupled is The Innovation Economy From Rest of The Economy?
- More around this topic: Innovation Economics on Wikipedia
Mashups
- Succinct Explanation: A web application/site/page/module that combines content from more than one third party website using web services/API’s provided by those websites.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: What is SaaS?
- Great external explanations: Mashups on Wikipedia
Multi-tenant Architecture
- Succinct Explanation: Hardware infrastructure used to deliver the ability for a vendor to enable multiple clients (or “tenants”) to use one piece of hardware.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: What is SaaS?
- Great external explanations: Multitenancy on Wikipedia
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Succinct Explanation: An IT infrastructure model that enables all the facilities required for building SaaS products end-to-end available entirely over the internet.
- Great external explanations: PaaS on Wikipedia
Programmable Web
- Succinct Explanation: A phrase coined by *someone-out-there* to describe the world of API’s available on the internet allow developers to create mashups and other inter-application functionalities
- Have a look at: ProgrammableWeb.com
Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Succinct Explanation: Software delivered to end users, over the internet, on a pay-per-use basis.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: What is SaaS?
- Great external explanations: SaaS on Wikipedia
Service Orientated Architecture
- Succinct Explanation: A method/approach/philosophy for building software so as to ensure that third party applications are able to interact with its business processes according to a set of rules.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: What is SaaS?
- Great external explanations: SOA on Wikipedia
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- Succinct Explanation: The traditional approach to software development projects which has various phases, namely, Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification and Maintenence.
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: Why SaaS?
- Great external explanations: SDLC on Wikipedia
Supplier Information System
- Succinct Explanation: A system that tracks all the suppliers that service a organization
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Strengthening the Argument: GE uses SaaS to manage 500,000 suppliers
Virtual Private Networks
- Succinct Explanation: A computer network setup which includes computers that may not be geographically collocated and where the connection between them is more than a simple wire (Local Area Network) connection.
- Great external explanations: VPN on Wikipedia
World Wide Web Consortium (WWWC | W3C)
- Succinct Explanation: The main international standards body for the World Wide Web
- Great external explanations: World Wide Web Consortium on Wikipedia | W3C.org About Us Page
Web 2.0
- Noone really knows how to properly describe this concept. This is by far the best explanation on the web in my view: The Machine is Using Us…
Web Service
- W3C Definition: “a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network”
- Related articles on SaaSPert: Starting out: What is SaaS?
- Great external explanations: API on Wikipedia
