Glossary
Accessibility
Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.
Activity Diagram
Activity diagrams represent the business and operational workflows of a system. An Activity diagram is a variation of the state diagram where the "states" represent operations, and the transitions represent the activities that happen when the operation is complete.
AJAX
AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a term describing a web development technique for creating interactive web applications using a combination of: * HTML (or XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets for presenting information* Document Object Model, JavaScript to dynamically display and interact with the information presented* XML, XSLT and the XMLHttpRequest object to interchange and manipulate data asynchronously with the web server (although AJAX applications can use other technologies
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a set of web development technologies marketed by Microsoft. Programmers can use it to build dynamic web sites, web applications and XML web services. It is part of Microsoft's .NET platform and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages technology.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs or breadcrumb trails is a navigation technique used in user interfaces. Its purpose is to give users a way to keep track of their location within programs or documents. They typically appear horizontally across the top of a webpage, usually below any title bars or headers. They provide links back to each previous page that the user navigated through in order to get to the current page. Breadcrumbs provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting/entry point of a website. They may look something like this:
Home page > Section page > Sub section page
Business Case
The rationale for undertaking a project or programme and justification for committing the necessary resources, setting out the benefits to be achieved. Together with the Project Initiation Document or the Programme Definition Statement provides the baseline against which the project or programme is managed. A business case documents the justification for the undertaking of a project based on the estimated cost of development and the anticipated benefits to be gained. It confirms the project's strategic fit with Business Objectives. It secures senior management and stakeholder commitment from the outset. It is also the vehicle by which the Senior Responsible Owner and Project Board confirm a firm and accepted foundation for a project, prior to the commencement of work and the agreement of resources. It is the case by which the ongoing viability of the project is monitored and will provide a basis for the Project Closure Report and the Post Implementation Review.
Business
Rules
Business rules describe the operations, definitions and constraints that apply to an organization in achieving its goals. For example a business rule might state that no credit check is to be performed on return customers. Others could define a tenant in terms of solvency or list preferred suppliers and supply schedules. These rules are then used to help the organization to better achieve goals, communicate among principals and agents, communicate between the organization and interested third parties, demonstrate fulfilment of legal obligations, operate more efficiently, automate operations, perform analysis on current practices, etc....
CMM
The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a method for evaluating and measuring the maturity of the software development process of organizations on a scale of 1 to 5. The CMM was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. It has been used extensively for avionics software and for government projects since it was created in the mid-1980s. The SEI has subsequently released a revised version known as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).
Coder
A programmer or software developer is someone who programs computers, i.e. writes computer software. A computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to the general mass of programmers working for a software company who implement the bulk of the code in large scale software, whether it be for a large mainframe or a personal computer. Somebody who practices (or professes) a formal approach to programming may also be known as a software engineer or even software analyst.
Communication Strategy
A detailed plan of when, what, how and with whom information flows will be established throughout the lifetime of the project or programme. This should form part of the Project Initiation Document.
A communication toolkit provides advice on dealing with the media, writing press releases, as well as branding guidelines.
Content Management
Content management or CM is a set of processes and technologies that support the evolutionary life cycle of digital information. This digital information is often referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content. The digital content life cycle consists of six primary phases: create, update, publish, translate, archive and retire. Content management is an inherently collaborative process. It often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities: Content Author; Editor; Publisher; and Administrator. A critical aspect of content management is the ability to manage versions of content as it evolves.
Content Management System
A content management system (CMS) is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles. The market for content management systems remains fragmented, with many open-source and proprietary solutions available.
Context Diagram
The context diagram represents the entire system under investigation. It should be drawn first, and used to clarify and agree the scope of the investigation. The system under investigation is represented as a single process, connected to external entities by data flows and resource flows.The context diagram clearly shows the interfaces between the system under investigation and the external entities with which it communicates. Therefore, whilst it is often conceptually trivial, a context diagram serves to focus attention on the system boundary and can help in clarifying the precise scope of the analysis.
CSS
CSS, short for Cascading Style Sheets, a new feature being added to HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear. These Style Sheets can then be applied to any Web page.
Estimation
To produce credible plans, estimates are required of effort and duration, (and from which cost can be derived), to meet the specified objectives. For the plans to be realistic, it is also necessary to secure the resource commitments in order to undertake the initiative in accordance with the schedule. Cost estimation in the context of software development is notoriously difficult. In order to improve standards of cost estimation, it is necessary to adopt a cost estimation process, based on using different estimation methods and measures at different stages in the project life-cycle, and incorporating feedback mechanisms to improve both individual estimating expertise and the accuracy of estimation models.
Functional Design
Functional design is a design pattern used to simplify the design of computer software. A functional design assures that each modular part of a computer program has only one responsibility and performs that responsibility with the minimum of side-effects on other parts.
Information Architecture
Information architecture focuses on designing effective navigation, organization, labelling, and search systems. It is an interdisciplinary field that draws upon the research and practices of information and library science, computer science, graphic design, and psychology. The role of the information architect is crucial to the planning and conceptual design/redesign stages of web development, as good information architecture lays the foundation upon which a website is built.
Knowledge Base
A knowledge base is a special kind of database for knowledge management. It provides the means for computerized collection, organization, and retrieval of knowledge. Knowledge bases are commonly used to capture explicit knowledge of an organization, including troubleshooting, articles, white papers, user manuals and others. The primary benefit of such a knowledge base is to provide a means to discover solutions to problems that have known solutions which can be re-applied by others, less experienced in the problem area.
Microsite
A microsite, (also known as minisite), is an Internet Web design term referring to an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website. The microsite’s main landing page most likely has its own Internet URL address.They are typically used to add a specialized group of information either editorial or commercial. Such sites may be linked in to a main site or not or taken completely off a site’s server when the site is used for a temporary purpose.
Objective
Something you need to achieve in order to meet your goal. To be effective, objectives should ALWAYS be written so that they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). All too often at least one of these elements is left out! The project should produce at least one product in support of each objective (otherwise, how are you going to achieve it?)
Online Marketing
Online Marketing is marketing on the Internet. It is a type of e-marketing, which in turn is a type of e-commerce. While at first the confusion of experiments, beta versions of websites, search engines and other online devices cause marketers to consider this world of the Internet unknowable and perhaps too unpredictable, there is now a growing body of work to which marketers are now paying attention in order to develop online marketing programs. The most known tools to marketers in the mid 2000s are currently tools grouped into 2 fields: online advertising and search engine optimization.
PRINCE2
The Government method which was developed by CCTA (now the Office of Government Commerce), originally for managing large-scale IT projects. It is often viewed as over-burdensome and too paper-driven when applied to business change programmes but, like many other methods, it contains the essential tools and techniques required for project management.
Product Based Planning
A three step diagrammatic technique leading to a comprehensive plan based on creation and delivery of required outputs. The technique considers prerequisite products, quality requirements and the dependencies between products.
Product Breakdown Structure
A product breakdown structure (PBS) is an exhaustive, hierarchical tree structure of components that make up a project deliverable, arranged in whole-part relationship. A PBS can help clarify what is to be delivered by the project and can help build a work breakdown structure.
Project Review
A final meeting where the project sponsor can confirm the project has brought benefits, and customers may welcome the opportunity to express how they found the results of the project.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.
Sequence Diagram
A sequence diagram is an interaction diagram that details how operations are carried out, what messages are sent and when. Sequence diagrams are organized according to time. The time progresses as you go down the page. The objects involved in the operation are listed from left to right according to when they take part in the message sequence.
Sitemap
A sitemap is a collection of hyperlinks that outlines a website's structure. A site's "map" may be on one page or spread across numerous categorized pages. They can be created manually or through an automated process.
Software Engineering
Software engineering is the profession that creates and maintains software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains and other fields.
Software Quality Assurance
Quality assurance and Quality Control are very similar and often used interchangeably. Strictly speaking quality assurance is used to describe the process by which quality can be demonstrated to have been achieved, whereas quality control is about the processes to be put in place to achieve that quality.
Stakeholder
Any person or organisation having an interest in the progress or outcomes of a Project or Programme - usually because they are either part of it or affected by what it delivers. The process of working out which stakeholders are most and least important to successful project delivery is called Stakeholder Analysis and the processes by which input from, and communications with, them are collectively controlled is called Stakeholder Management.
Style Guide
Style guides generally give guidance on language use. Some style guides consider or focus on elements of graphic design, such as typography and white space. Website style guides often focus on visual or technical aspects.
Systems Architect
The systems architect is mainly responsible for generating the highest level of system requirements, based on the user's needs and other constraints such as cost and schedule. The systems architect must ensure that this set of high level requirements is consistent, complete, correct, and operationally defined.
Systems Analysis
Systems analysis is the science dealing with analysis of complex, large scale systems and the interactions within those systems.
Task Analysis
Task analysis is the analysis or a breakdown of exactly how a task is accomplished, such as what sub-tasks are required. This information can then be used for many purposes, such as improving the design of tools or procedures that aid in performing the task. These tools can be either physical implements or software.
Template
A template is some form of device to provide a separation of form or structure from content.
ThumbnailsSmall versions of larger graphics, which are usually used on web pages as a link to the larger graphic version.
UML
In software engineering, Unified Modelling Language (UML) is a non-proprietary, third generation modelling and specification language. However, the use of UML is not restricted to model software. It can be used for modelling hardware (engineering systems) and is commonly used for business process modelling, organizational structure, and systems engineering modelling. The UML is an open method used to specify, visualize, construct, and document the artefacts of an object-oriented software-intensive system under development. The UML represents a compilation of best engineering practices which have proven to be successful in modelling large, complex systems, especially at the architectural level.
Usability
The International Standards Organization defines usability as, "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use."
Use Case
In software engineering, a use case is a technique for capturing the potential requirements of a new system or software change. Each use case provides one or more scenarios that convey how the system should interact with the end user or another system to achieve a specific business goal. Use cases typically avoid technical jargon, preferring instead the language of the end user or domain expert. Use cases are often co-authored by Business Analysts and end users.
User Interface
In computer science and human-computer interaction, the user interface (of a computer program) refers to the graphical, textual and auditory information the program presents to the user, and the control sequences (such as keystrokes with the computer keyboard, movements of the computer mouse, and selections with the touch screen) the user employs to control the program.
Wireframe
A grayscale block diagram that illustrates the overall navigation and blocks of elements.