A practical reference for beginners, interns, developers, and anyone working in the IT field. The glossary covers popular roles, technologies, terminology, slang, and business vocabulary.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CEO | Chief Executive Officer — head of the company |
| CTO | Chief Technology Officer — responsible for technology |
| CPO | Chief Product Officer — responsible for the product |
| COO | Chief Operating Officer — operations director |
| Dev | Developer |
| QA | Quality Assurance — tester (manual or automation) |
| PM | Project Manager — manages projects |
| PO | Product Owner — defines and prioritizes tasks |
| TL / Lead | Team Lead — team manager |
| BA | Business Analyst |
| HR | Human Resources — recruiter |
| UX/UI | User Experience / User Interface — interface designer |
| SRE | Site Reliability Engineer — reliability engineer |
| DevOps | Specialist in CI/CD and infrastructure automation |
| Intern | Intern |
| Junior | Entry-level specialist |
| Middle | Mid-level specialist |
| Senior | Senior specialist |
| Architect | Software Architect — designs application architecture |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Backend | Server-side — logic, databases, APIs |
| Frontend | Client-side — interface seen by users |
| Fullstack | Specialist in both backend and frontend |
| Stack | Technology set (e.g., React + Node.js + MongoDB) |
| CI/CD | Continuous Integration and Delivery |
| API | Interface for communication between systems (REST, GraphQL) |
| DB | Database |
| ORM | Object-Relational Mapping — working with databases through code |
| IDE | Integrated Development Environment |
| Repo | Repository — code storage (usually Git) |
| Branch | Git branch |
| Merge | Branch merge |
| Pull Request (PR) | Request to merge code |
| Code Review | Code check by another developer |
| Refactor | Rewriting code without changing behavior |
| Commit | Saving changes in Git |
| Deploy | Deploying a project to a server |
| Release | Product version release |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| MVP | Minimum Viable Product — minimally functional version |
| Pivot | Change of strategy or direction |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicators |
| OKR | Objectives and Key Results |
| A/B test | Comparing two versions of a feature |
| Roadmap | Development plan |
| User Story | Task description from a user perspective |
| Sprint | Short development cycle |
| Backlog | Task list |
| Estimate | Task estimation |
| Scope | Work or feature volume |
| Deadline | Final due date |
| Feature | Functionality |
| Tech Debt | Technical debt — compromises in code |
| Stakeholder | Interested party (investors, clients) |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Stand-up | Daily team meeting |
| Call | Video call |
| 1-on-1 | One-on-one meeting |
| Ping | Send a reminder message |
| Sync | Progress alignment |
| ASAP | As Soon As Possible |
| ETA | Estimated Time of Arrival |
| FYI | For Your Information |
| IMO / IMHO | In My (Humble) Opinion |
| TL;DR | Too Long; Didn’t Read — short summary |
| LGTM | Looks Good To Me — PR approval |
| BRB | Be Right Back |
| AFK | Away From Keyboard |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CI/CD pipeline | Automated build, testing, deployment |
| Microservices | Architecture of independent services |
| Monolith | Single unified application |
| Container | Isolated environment (Docker, etc.) |
| Orchestration | Container management (e.g., Kubernetes) |
| Load Balancer | Traffic distribution system |
| Scalability | Ability to scale |
| Latency | Response delay |
| Throughput | Processing capacity |
| Failover | Automatic switching during failure |
| Cache | Temporary data storage |
| Queue | Task queue (RabbitMQ, Celery) |
| Pub/Sub | Publish/Subscribe event system |
If you want to add a term — create a Pull Request or Issue!
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CPO (Chief Product Officer) is the head of product and one of the key C-level executives in IT and technology companies.
The CPO is the main person responsible for the product.
-
Product Strategy Defines what the product will be, why it exists, who it serves, and how it evolves.
-
Feature Management Prioritizes features, decides what to build next and what to remove.
-
Cross-Team Coordination Works with development, design, marketing, analytics, and sales.
-
Growth and Metrics Responsible for KPIs: user activity, retention, conversion, revenue, NPS.
-
Prototyping and A/B Testing Organizes hypothesis validation and experimentation processes.
Typical structure:
CEO
|
+--------+---------+---------+
| | |
CTO CPO CMO/COO
| | |
devs product marketing
- CEO — company leader
- CPO — head of product
- CTO — responsible for technology
- CMO — marketing
- COO — operations
| CTO | CPO | |
|---|---|---|
| Responsible for | Technology, architecture | Product, users |
| Goal | Reliable working code | Valuable product |
| Works with | Developers, DevOps | Designers, analysts, customers |
- “Which feature is more important: chat or payments?”
- “How can we improve onboarding?”
- “How can we increase Day 14 retention?”
- “Should we use subscription or freemium?”
- “Is it time for a new product version?”
Often:
- Former product manager
- Product founder
- Analyst or marketer with deep market knowledge
COO (Chief Operating Officer) is the operations director and right hand of the CEO, responsible for daily business operations.
The COO ensures the business runs smoothly.
- Internal process organization
- Business optimization
- Managing operations or services
- Team management
- Executing CEO strategy
| CEO | COO | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Vision, strategy | Execution |
| Responsibility | External direction | Internal operations |
| Works with | Board, investors | Internal teams |
CI/CD is a set of software development practices that automate code integration and delivery.
- CI — Continuous Integration
- CD — Continuous Delivery / Continuous Deployment
Developers frequently merge code into a shared branch. Automated processes run:
- Build
- Unit tests
- Code analysis
Purpose:
- Reduce merge conflicts
- Detect errors early
- Improve stability
Tools:
- GitHub Actions
- GitLab CI
- Jenkins
- Travis CI
- CircleCI
After CI passes:
- Production build is created
- Artifacts (e.g., Docker images) are generated
- Deployment to staging
- Manual production release
Fully automated deployment to production after CI passes.
1. Developer pushes code
2. CI runs:
- Linter
- Unit tests
- Build
3. Docker image is created
4. Deploy to staging
5. Manual approval (or automatic)
6. Deploy to production
- Faster bug detection
- Faster releases
- Automated testing
- Improved stability
- Version control and logging
CI/CD is a process, not a person. Responsibility may lie with:
- DevOps Engineer
- Backend Developer (small teams)
- Team Lead
- SRE
- Dedicated Release Engineer in large companies
- YAML configuration
- Git
- Docker
- CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins)
- Testing knowledge
- Deployment tools (Kubernetes, Ansible)