185 Software Development Acronyms

In the world of software development, we use and see a lot of acronyms. In this article, I’ve listed a lot of common acronyms, along with definitions, which can help your understanding in the workplace.

Software Development Acronyms

This article contains 185 different software development acronyms – abbreviations of words that software developers might see at work and during their career. Some of them might seem quite obvious (such as ASAP), some of them are technical (such as JSON) and others are depend on the workplace (such as MOM).

They are divided into sections to make it easier to read.

This isn’t a full list of acronyms. There are most likely some acronyms that you know of that are not on this list. If you know of any I’ve missed, add them in the comments section, and I’ll update this list.

 

Applications

These acronyms relate to applications that you might use at work.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
AD	Active Directory	A directory service for Windows servers
CRM	Customer Relationship Management	The process and systems that relate to storing and managing customer information
CVS	Concurrent Versioning System	A source code control system
IIS	Internet Information Services	A Web server created by Microsoft
RTC	Rational Team Concert	A tool by IBM used for issue tracking and project management
SAAS	Software as a Service	Software that is available online and accessed by users as needed. An alternative to software that is downloaded
SAP	Systems Applications & Products	A German software product used by enterprises for many functions
SVN	Subversion	A source code control system
VSS	Visual Source Safe	A source code control system

 

Business

These acronyms relate to business operations and finances.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
AL	Annual Leave	A day off work in agreement with your employer
ASAP	As Soon As Possible	Something that needs to be done immediately
B2B	Business to Business	A service or product that is created by a business for other businesses
B2C	Business to Consumer	A service or product that is created by a business for consumers (non-businesses)
BAU	Business As Usual	An ongoing state of work, despite something that may have disturbed the workplace
BPM	Business Process Management	Analysing business processes and identifying gaps and issues
CAPEX	Capital Expenditure	The money that is spent on capital work, such as projects (once-off work)
CMS	Content Management System	A system used to store and display content (text, images, etc) for users to view
CV	Curriculum Vitae	An alternative to a resume , preferred in many parts of the world
CY	Calendar Year	The period from Jan 1 to Dec 1, often used in planning
DW	Data Warehouse	A database used for business intelligence and reporting. Read more here.
EAP	Employee Assistance Program	A service offered by employers to assist their employees with issues
ERP	Enterprise Resource Planning	The process of organising and planning resources for projects and company operations
ETA	Estimated Time of Arrival	An estimate on the time that something will be finished by
FT	Full Time	Someone who works a standard week of working hours
FTE	Full Time Employees, or Full Time Equivalent	A full time employee. Often used in resource planning
FY	Financial Year	The financial year used for the company. Varies by country
HR	Human Resources	The company department responsible for employee issues and services
ICT	Information and Communication Technology	The employment sector that software developers work in
ITIL	Information Technology Infrastructure Library	A set of practices used in service management for IT
KPI	Key Performance Indicators	A set of metrics or numbers used by a company to measure its success
LWOP	Leave Without Pay	Taking time off work without being paid. Alternative to annual leave
MoM	Month on Month	A report that compares one month to the previous month
N/A	Not Applicable or Not Available	Indicates that something does not apply
NDA	Non-Disclosure Agreement	An agreement signed by someone to keep the contents confidential. Often used on private projects
OEM	Original Equipment Manufacturer	A company that manufactures equipment for users
OPEX	Operational Expenditure	The money that is spent on operational work, such as support and management (ongoing work)
PT	Part Time	Someone who works less than a standard week (e.g. 2 or 3 days per week)
RAD	Rapid Application Development	A software development methodology
RFP	Request For Proposal	A request that a company sends to a vendor to make a proposal for some work
RFQ	Request For Quote	A request that a company sends to a vendor to make a quote for some work
ROI	Return On Investment	The result that a company or a person gets on money that has been invested
SEM	Search Engine Marketing	The process of promoting a company or service on search engines
SEO	Search Engine Optimisation	The process of optimising a website to be found by search engines
SKU	Stock Keeping Unit	A single item that can be tracked by a stock management system
SL	Sick Leave	Taking time away from work for health reasons
SLA	Service Level Agreement	An agreement between a company and a service provider. Often used in application support to refer to timeframes for resolution
SME	Subject Matter Expert	An employee that knows an area of the business quite well
SOE	Standard Operating Environment	The default computer configuration (software, hardware) for employees to use
SOP	Standard Operating Procedure	The standard process for getting something done
TIL	Time In Lieu	Taking time off as repayment for working extra hours at an earlier point
TLA	Three Letter Acronym	An abbreviation of something that is three letters long
WFH	Working From Home	An employee that performs their work from home, instead of coming in to the office
WoW	Week on Week	A report that compares one week to the previous week
WYSIWYG	What You See Is What You Get	A process of creating a design of software where the design matches the output
YoY	Year On Year	A report that compares one year to the previous year
YTD	Year To Date	The time period from the start of the calendar year to the current date

 

Certification

These acronyms represent certifications in the IT industry. It’s not a complete list of certifications, though.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
MCA	Microsoft Certified Architect	A Microsoft certification for architects
MCAD	Microsoft Certified Application Developer	A Microsoft certification for developers
MCAS	Microsoft Certified Application Specialist	A Microsoft certification for developers
MCDBA	Microsoft Certified Database Administrator	A Microsoft certification for database administrators
MCDST	Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician	A Microsoft certification for desktop support
MCITP	Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional	A Microsoft certification
MCM	Microsoft Certified Master	An advanced Microsoft certification
MCP	Microsoft Certified Professional	Someone who has a Microsoft certification
MCPD	Microsoft Certified Professional Developer	A Microsoft certification for developers
MCSA	Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator	A Microsoft certification for system administrators
MCSD	Microsoft Certified Solution Developer	A Microsoft certification for developers
MCSE	Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer	A Microsoft certification for developers
MCT	Microsoft Certified Trainer	A Microsoft certification for trainers
MCTS	Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist	A Microsoft certification for developers
MTA	Microsoft Technology Associate	A Microsoft certification

 

Documents

These acronyms relate to documents that might be used in software projects.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
BRD	Business Requirements Document	A document that contains business requirements, both functional and non functional
RDD	Requirements Definition Document	A document that specifies detailed requirements
RTM	Requirements Traceability Matrix	A document that matches business requirements and tests to other areas of the system

 

Email

These acronyms relate to terms you might see and use in emails.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
AP	Action Point	Something that needs to be done by someone, often as a result of a meeting
BCC	Blind Carbon Copy	Sending a copy of an email to someone without the original recipient knowing
CC	Carbon Copy	Sending a copy of an email to someone else
COB	Close of Business	The end of a working day. Often used in deadlines, e.g. “COB Thursday”
EOD	End of Day	The end of a working day. Often used in deadlines, e.g. “EOD Tuesday”
EOM	End of Message	Indicates the end of a message
FYI	For Your Information	Used to notify someone of some information
IDK	I Don’t Know	Not knowing the answer
IMHO	In My Humble Opinion	Providing your opinion
MOM	Minutes of Meeting	A list of topics that were discussed in a meeting
PFA	Please Find Attached	Indicates that a file has been attached
TBA	To Be Advised, or To Be Announced	The details will be provided at a later date
TBC	To Be Confirmed	The details will be provided at a later date
TBD	To Be Determined	The details will be provided at a later date
WRT	With Respect To/With Regards To	Referring to another topic that was mentioned

 

General IT

These acronyms relate to general IT industry terms.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
CS	Computer Science	The study and discipline of how computers and software work
MIS	Management Information Systems	The study of IT and how it relates to business
MIT	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	A well-known technology university in the United States
MSDN	Microsoft Developer Network	A website by Microsoft that provides resources for developers
SSO	Single Sign On	The ability to sign on to a website in one location and access all of its services

 

Job Roles

These acronyms relate to job roles in the industry.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
BA	Business Analyst	A person who gathers requirements from end users and communicates them to developers
CEO	Chief Executive Officer	The person responsible for running a company
CFO	Chief Financial Officer	The person responsible for the financial department of a company
CIO	Chief Information Officer	The person responsible for the IT department of a company
COO	Chief Operating Officer	The person responsible for daily operations of a company
CTO	Chief Technology Officer	The person responsible for the technology department of a company
DBA	Database Administrator	A person responsible for ensuring that a company’s databases are secure and operational
EA	Executive Assistant	A personal assistant to an executive in a company
ED	Executive Director	A mid-level role in a company
GM	General Manager	A mid-level role in a company
PA	Personal Assistant	Someone who assists a manager in a company
PM	Project Manager	The person responsible for managing people and issues related to a project

 

Programming

These acronyms relate to programming terms and technologies.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
1NF	First Normal Form	The first stage of creating a normalised database
2NF	Second Normal Form	The second stage of creating a normalised database
3NF	Third Normal Form	The final stage of creating a normalised database
AJAX	Asynchronous JavaScript and XML	A group of web development techniques to let you create asynchronous applications
API	Application Programming Interface	An external interface from an application that other applications can access
ASP	Active Server Pages	A server-side scripting language by Microsoft
COBOL	Common Business-Oriented Langauge	An old programming language
COM	Component Object Model	Interface for software components
CSS	Cascading Style Sheets	A language used to organise and design how a web site looks
DAO	Data Access Object	An object that provides access to a database
DDL	Data Definition Language	A set of SQL terms used to create and alter objects
DML	Data Manipulation Language	A set of SQL terms used to view data related to objects
DOM	Document Object Model	A cross-platform and language-independent convention for interacting with documents
EOF	End of File	Indicates the end of a file
EOL	End of Line	Indicates the end of a line in a file
ERD	Entity Relationship Diagram	A diagram created to explain how database tables or entities are related. To create one, use one of these tools.
ERM	Entity Relationship Model	A diagram created to explain how entities in a program are related
ETL	Extract, Transform, Load	The process of getting data from one database and loading it into a data warehouse
FCL	Framework Class Library	Standard library for Microsoft’s .NET framework that includes a collection of classes
FIFO	First In First Out	A queuing method that says the first item in is the first item out
FSO	File System Object	An object that provides access to a file system
GUID	Global Unique Identifier	A value in a database record used to uniquely identify that record in the database
IDE	Integrated Development Environment	Software that allows developers to write code
J2EE	Java 2 Enterprise Edition	A version of Java that is made for enterprise applications
J2ME	Java 2 Micro Edition	A version of Java that is made for mobile applications
J2SE	Java 2 Standard Edition	The standard version of Java
JDBC	Java Database Connectivity	A method of connecting from an application to a database
JDK	Java Development Kit	The software used to develop Java applications
JFC	Java Foundation Classes	A graphical framework for building Java-based user interfaces
JRE	Java Runtime Environment	The software used to run Java applications
JS	JavaScript	A client-side scripting language used to develop Web applications
JSON	JavaScript Object Notation	A lightweight data interchange format
JSP	JavaServer Pages	A Java technology used to create web pages.
JVM	Java Virtual Machine	The software used to run Java applications
LIFO	Last In First Out	A queuing method that says the last item in is the first item out
LOC	Lines of Code	The number of lines of code in a program. A way to measure the size of a program
MAPI	Messaging Application Programming Interface	A messaging architecture and API for Windows
MDA	Model-Driven Architecture	An approach to designing software that structures it around models
MFC	Microsoft Foundation Classes	A library of classes that maps the Windows API into C++ classes
MVC	Model View Controller	A software design that includes three levels of modules
OLAP	Online Analytical Processing	A database used by business intelligence or data warehouses
OLE	Object Linking and Embedding	A technology that allowsembedding and linking to documents and other objects
OLTP	Online Transaction Processing	A database used by regular systems, such as websites and company systems
OOP	Object Oriented Programming	Writing code and designing programs as a collection of smaller objects that interact with each other
ORM	Object Relational Mapping	A technique for converting data between systems in object oriented programming languages
PHP	Personal Home Page/PHP Hypertext Preprocessor	A popular language used to develop web sites
REGEX	Regular Expression	A set of rules that are used to process strings
REST	Representational State Transfer	An architectural style that allows loading data from web pages
SCM	Source Code Management	The process of storing source code on a server and managing it for a team
SDK	Software Development Kit	A collection of tools that allow developers to write code in a particular language
SOLID	Single responsibility, Open-closed, Liskov substitution, Interface segregation, Dependency inversion	A principle of Object Oriented Programming. Something to learn if you want to improve your programming skills.
SQL	Structured Query Language	A language used to access databases, such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server
SQLXML	SQL Server XML	A version of XML used by SQL Server
VB	Visual Basic	A Microsoft language used to write applications
VBA	Visual Basic for Applications	A version of Visual Basic included in Microsoft Office programs
VS	Visual Studio	An IDE or program developed by Microsoft that is used to write software
SOAP	Simple Object Access Protocol	A messaging protocol that allows programs to communicate using HTTP
XAML	Extensible Application Markup Language	An XML-based language designed by Microsoft
XHTML	Extensible Hyptertext Markup Language	An extension of HTML
XML	Extensible Markup Language	A language used to store data for transfer between systems
XSD	XML Schema Definition	The definition of a particular set of XML files
XSL	Extensible Stylesheet Language	The styling of an XML file
YAGNI	You Ain’t Gonna Need It	A software development principle that says you should only develop for features that you know

 

Project

These acronyms are related to project stages and processes.

Acronym	Stands For	Meaning
AT	Acceptance Testing	Testing the software against the requirements to see if they have been met
BDD	Behaviour Driven Development	Developing use cases based on user behaviour
BDUF	Big Design Up Front	Performing the design of a system at the start of the project, instead of as you go
BI	Business Intelligence	Gathering and analysing data from the company to perform business decisions
BVT	Business Verification Testing	The process of verifying the product with a business user to ensure it meets their requirements
Dev	Development	The process of writing software code
FDD	Feature Driven Development	A method of development that is centred around developing for a feature
PVT	Product Verification Testing	The testing process to ensure that the end product works without issues
RUP	Rational Unified Process	A software development methodology, developed by IBM
SIT	Systems Integration Testing	The testing process to ensure the software integrates with other systems successfully
TDD	Test-Driven Development	A development process that starts with test cases, which are then used to develop requirements
UAT	User Acceptance Testing	The testing process where end users perform tests and validate them against their requirements
UI	User Interface	The display, screens, or windows of an application
UML	Unified Modelling Language	A standard for diagrams and designing software
UX	User Experience	The process of using the application from a user’s perspective. Includes UI, process, and customer journeys
XP	Extreme Programming	A software development methodology

 

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