Jargon Translator
Decode IT jargon into board-ready plain English. Search the built-in dictionary or ask the AI co-pilot on the right to translate any term for any audience.
24 of 24 dictionary terms
Technical Debt
BoardBusiness translation
Shortcuts we took that now cost us time and money every month
Technical explanation
Accumulated code/architecture shortcuts that increase maintenance burden
Example usage
"We have $50K/month in technical debt" = "Shortcuts in our codebase cost us $50K/month in extra engineering time"
Microservices
ExecutiveBusiness translation
Breaking our big system into small, independent pieces so teams can work faster
Technical explanation
Architectural pattern where applications are composed of small, independently deployable services
Example usage
"We're migrating to microservices" = "We're reorganizing our software so different teams can ship features independently"
CI/CD Pipeline
BoardBusiness translation
An automated assembly line that tests and deploys our software changes
Technical explanation
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment - automated build, test, and release process
Example usage
"Our CI/CD pipeline is broken" = "Our automated quality-check-and-release system is down, so we can't ship updates"
API
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A standardized way for two software systems to talk to each other
Technical explanation
Application Programming Interface - defined contract for software-to-software communication
Example usage
"We need an API integration" = "We need to connect our system to their system so they can exchange data automatically"
Kubernetes
BoardBusiness translation
A system that automatically manages where and how our software runs in the cloud
Technical explanation
Container orchestration platform that automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications
Example usage
"We're moving to Kubernetes" = "We're adopting a system that automatically handles scaling and reliability of our applications"
SLA
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A guaranteed promise about how reliable and fast a service will be
Technical explanation
Service Level Agreement - contractual uptime and performance commitments
Example usage
"Our SLA is 99.9%" = "We guarantee the system will be available 99.9% of the time (about 8.7 hours of downtime per year max)"
Zero Trust
BoardBusiness translation
Never automatically trust anyone, always verify identity before granting access
Technical explanation
Security model that requires strict identity verification for every person and device accessing resources
Example usage
"We're implementing Zero Trust" = "Instead of trusting everyone inside our network, we'll verify every single access request"
Sprint
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A 2-week work cycle where the team commits to delivering specific features
Technical explanation
Time-boxed iteration in Agile/Scrum methodology, typically 1-4 weeks
Example usage
"It's in the next sprint" = "The team has committed to delivering this in the next 2-week cycle"
Refactoring
BoardBusiness translation
Reorganizing the internal structure of software without changing what it does — like renovating a building's plumbing
Technical explanation
Restructuring existing code without altering its external behavior to improve maintainability
Example usage
"We need a refactoring sprint" = "We need 2 weeks to clean up the internal code structure so we can build faster going forward"
Latency
ExecutiveBusiness translation
How long users wait for the system to respond
Technical explanation
Time delay between a request and response, measured in milliseconds
Example usage
"P99 latency is 200ms" = "99% of the time, users get a response within 0.2 seconds"
Monolith
BoardBusiness translation
One big software application where everything is bundled together
Technical explanation
Single-tiered application where all components are interwoven and deployed as one unit
Example usage
"We need to break up the monolith" = "Our single giant application needs to be split into smaller, manageable pieces"
DevOps
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A practice where development and operations teams work together to release software faster and more reliably
Technical explanation
Set of practices combining software development and IT operations to shorten development lifecycle
Example usage
"We're adopting DevOps" = "We're changing how our teams work so we can ship software updates daily instead of monthly"
Cloud Native
BoardBusiness translation
Software designed from the ground up to take full advantage of cloud computing
Technical explanation
Applications built with containers, microservices, and dynamic orchestration optimized for cloud environments
Example usage
"Going cloud native" = "Redesigning our software to fully leverage cloud scalability and resilience"
Tech Stack
ExecutiveBusiness translation
The complete set of programming languages, frameworks, and tools we use to build our product
Technical explanation
The combination of technologies used in application development and deployment
Example usage
"We're modernizing our tech stack" = "We're upgrading the fundamental tools and languages our engineers use to build our product"
Scalability
BoardBusiness translation
The system's ability to handle more users/data without performance degradation
Technical explanation
Capacity to increase throughput by adding resources (horizontal or vertical scaling)
Example usage
"It doesn't scale" = "The system will slow down or break if we get significantly more users"
Technical Spike
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A short research project to figure out if a solution will work before committing to it
Technical explanation
Time-boxed investigation to evaluate a technical approach, typically 1-3 days
Example usage
"We need a spike on this" = "We need a few days to research whether this approach is feasible before we commit"
Load Balancer
BoardBusiness translation
A traffic cop that distributes incoming requests across multiple servers so no single server gets overwhelmed
Technical explanation
Network device or software that distributes incoming traffic across multiple backend servers
Example usage
"We need a load balancer" = "We need to spread user traffic across multiple servers for better performance and reliability"
Container
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A lightweight, self-contained package of software that runs the same way everywhere
Technical explanation
OS-level virtualization that packages an application with its dependencies for consistent deployment
Example usage
"We're containerizing our apps" = "We're packaging our applications so they run identically in development, testing, and production"
Observability
BoardBusiness translation
The ability to understand what's happening inside our systems by looking at the data they produce
Technical explanation
Practice of instrumenting systems with metrics, logs, and traces to understand internal state
Example usage
"We need better observability" = "We need better visibility into how our systems are performing so we can fix problems faster"
Feature Flag
ExecutiveBusiness translation
An on/off switch that lets us release features to specific users without deploying new code
Technical explanation
Runtime toggle that enables conditional feature availability without code deployment
Example usage
"It's behind a feature flag" = "The feature is built but turned off. We can enable it for specific users anytime"
Serverless
BoardBusiness translation
Running code in the cloud without managing any servers — you only pay when the code actually runs
Technical explanation
Cloud execution model where the provider manages server infrastructure and bills per-execution
Example usage
"We're going serverless" = "We're letting the cloud provider manage servers. We just write code and pay only when it runs"
Data Lake
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A massive storage repository that holds all our raw data in its natural format until we need it
Technical explanation
Centralized repository for storing structured and unstructured data at any scale
Example usage
"We need a data lake" = "We need a central place to store all our data (from all systems) so analysts can query it"
Burndown Chart
ExecutiveBusiness translation
A graph showing how much work is left vs. time remaining in a project cycle
Technical explanation
Visual representation of work remaining over time in an Agile sprint or project
Example usage
"The burndown looks good" = "The team is on track to finish all planned work by the deadline"
Single Point of Failure
BoardBusiness translation
A component that, if it breaks, takes down the entire system
Technical explanation
A non-redundant component whose failure causes complete system unavailability
Example usage
"That's a single point of failure" = "If that one thing breaks, everything stops. We need a backup."