Software Development Glossary

Technical debt is the implied cost of rework caused by choosing quick, easy solutions instead of better approaches that would take longer. Like financial debt, technical debt accumulates interest—maintenance costs grow over time, slowing development and increasing risks. It occurs when developers take shortcuts to meet deadlines, use outdated technologies, or write poor-quality code that needs to be fixed later.

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the most basic version of a product that can be released to test a core hypothesis. It contains only essential features needed to validate the product idea with real users, without the bells and whistles that come later. The goal is to learn quickly and iterate based on user feedback, rather than building a perfect product that no one wants. MVPs help startups and product teams minimize risk by testing assumptions before investing heavily in development.

Microservices architecture is an approach to building software applications as a collection of small, independent services that communicate through well-defined APIs. Each microservice focuses on a specific business capability and can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. Unlike monolithic applications where all functionality is tightly coupled, microservices allow teams to work on different services simultaneously, use different technologies for different problems, and deploy updates without affecting the entire system.

Cloud migration is the process of moving applications, data, and infrastructure from on-premises data centers or legacy hosting environments to cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. This includes assessing current systems, planning the migration strategy, transferring data and applications, and optimizing for cloud-native features. Cloud migration offers benefits like cost reduction, scalability, improved security, and faster innovation, but requires careful planning to avoid downtime and ensure compatibility.

Agile development is an iterative approach to software development that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback. Unlike traditional waterfall methods that plan everything upfront, agile breaks projects into small, manageable increments called sprints (typically 1-4 weeks). Each sprint delivers working software that can be tested and reviewed by stakeholders. Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban prioritize responding to change over following a rigid plan, allowing teams to adapt quickly to new requirements and feedback.

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. APIs define the methods and data formats that applications can use to request and exchange information. REST APIs use HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to interact with resources, while GraphQL allows clients to request exactly the data they need. APIs enable microservices to communicate, mobile apps to connect to backends, and third-party integrations to extend application functionality.