Glossary

A

ADR— Architecture Decision Record: A lightweight, version-controlled note that captures a significant technical decision, the options considered, and why one was chosen. It lives in the code repo next to the modules it affects, so future developers understand the "why," not just the "what." We create ADRs whenever a design choice could be challenged later—e.g., "Why PostgreSQL over MySQL?"—and link them to the BPMN task that triggered the choice.
AI— Artificial Intelligence: Any machine-learning or large-language-model helper we embed to accelerate quoting, coding or user features. For example, our AI quoting tool produces a ROM estimate in < 24 h, and our LangChain connectors let your Svelte app talk to GPT or Azure OpenAI out of the box.
API— Application Programming Interface: A contract that lets two systems exchange data—usually JSON over HTTPS. We build and consume REST and GraphQL APIs; in integration-first projects, an architect designs the API mesh and documents each endpoint in Swagger/OpenAPI.

B

BDD— Behaviour-Driven Development: A requirements technique that writes "Given / When / Then" scenarios in Gherkin syntax. Those scenarios double as automated acceptance tests in our CI/CD pipeline, ensuring code stays aligned with business intent. You'll see BDD first in a Discovery Sprint and then running nightly in Sim 42.
BOM— Bill of Materials: A line-item breakdown of everything that goes into a solution—components, licenses, estimated effort. Your AI-generated ROM includes a simplified BOM so finance can eyeball the cost drivers before we deep-scope.
BPMN— Business Process Model & Notation: An ISO standard diagramming language for workflows. We model processes in three layers:

L1 Vision Map (executive view)
L2 Business Flow (ops view)
L3 Technical Swim-lanes (dev view)

Those diagrams become the backbone of Lab 42 design and later guide BDD test writing.

C

CI/CD— Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery: An automated pipeline that builds, tests and deploys code on every commit. In Forge 42 we wire static analysis, unit tests, BDD, Cypress UI tests and deploy previews into GitHub Actions (or your own runner), so you can click a link and see the latest increment live.
CPI— Consumer Price Index: Government inflation metric we reference when reviewing long-term rate locks in Milestone Contracts or DaaS retainers. If CPI blows past 6 %, we revisit labour rates to keep things fair for both sides.
CRUD— Create, Read, Update, Delete: The four fundamental operations on a data entity. Sprints often start by scaffolding CRUD flows so testers and stakeholders can play with real data early.

D

DaaS— Dev-as-a-Service: A rolling monthly retainer that gives you a dedicated squad (3 + FTE) capable of discovering, designing, building and running your software. Unlike staff-augmentation, DaaS owns outcomes and includes product, engineering and light SRE.
DoD— Definition of Done: A checklist that every story, sprint or milestone must meet before it's accepted. Items include code review, passing tests, updated ADRs, and performance budgets. We agree on the DoD during the Lab 42 phase and police it in Sim 42.

E

ERP— Enterprise Resource Planning: Monolithic back-office suites like SAP or Oracle that we often integrate with. When you see "integration spike" on a timeline, it's usually about poking an ERP's APIs or IDoc feeds.

F

FCI— Feature Clarity Index: A 0-to-10 score that measures how well-defined, stable and "build-ready" your backlog is. It's calculated from twelve quick questions on the Assess Your Situation page.

0–4: Discovery Sprint territory
5–7: Sprint Pod or Mini-DaaS
8–10: Fixed-Scope Pack

We re-score at every Steering Day and switch billing models if the number drifts.
FTE— Full-Time Equivalent: One person's worth of capacity. A 0.5 FTE means half-time allocation. We state squad sizes (and DaaS pricing) in FTE to keep maths transparent.

G

Gantt— Gantt Chart: A bar-chart timeline view of tasks over weeks or months. Execs love it, engineers tolerate it. We auto-generate a Gantt snapshot for every Fixed-Scope Pack and Milestone schedule so board members can track progress at a glance.

H

HIPAA— Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: US regulation for handling medical data. Shows up in our glossaries and risk checklists when we build health-tech prototypes or back-office tools.

K

KPI— Key Performance Indicator: A numeric measure that defines success—e.g., "Cut onboarding from 14 steps to 6." We baseline KPIs during Discovery or Lab 42 and track delta during Base 42 optimisation loops.
k6— k6 Load Testing: An open-source load-testing tool. In Sim 42 we script k6 scenarios to pound the API layer and make sure p99 latency and concurrency targets hold.

L

LWC— Lightning Web Components: Salesforce's modern JavaScript UI framework. We use LWC to craft high-performance portals and internal consoles, especially when we promise "code-first, not point-and-click" in our Salesforce offering.

M

Milestone Contract: A parent SOW that chains multiple Fixed-Scope Packs. Each milestone locks scope, price and KPI gates, giving enterprise clients board-level checkpoints without losing the agility of two-week sprints.
MVP— Minimum Viable Product: The smallest feature set that delivers real value and feedback. Often the target of the first Fixed-Scope Pack or Milestone.

N

NDA— Non-Disclosure Agreement: A confidentiality contract executed before we share sensitive docs or source code. We can sign mutual NDAs within 24 h to keep sales velocity high.
NFR— Non-Functional Requirement: Performance, scalability, security, and other quality attributes. We tie NFR budgets to the DoD and measure them in Sim 42 (e.g., "p99 API latency ≤ 300 ms").
NPS— Net Promoter Score: Customer-satisfaction metric (0–10). We survey stakeholders each quarter; anything < 9 triggers a retro action item.

O

OKR— Objective & Key Result: Quarterly goal-setting framework. DaaS squads set OKRs like "Reduce escaped defects to < 1 %" to steer beyond ticket throughput.

P

PCI DSS— Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard: Compliance baseline for any app touching cardholder data. Our out-of-the-box payments module follows PCI DSS so you start ahead.
PoC— Proof of Concept: A quick technical or UX spike to prove feasibility. Mini-DaaS often delivers PoCs before we commit to a full build.
PSM— Professional Scrum Master: Certification held by our Delivery Leads, proving they can run scrum events and remove blockers without cargo-culting.

Q

Q&A— Questions & Answers: The clarification round during RFPs or security reviews. We commit to < 48 h turnaround so sales cycles don't stall.

R

R&D— Research & Development: Exploratory work that validates tech choices or UX assumptions. Mini-DaaS excels here.
RAG— Retrieval-Augmented Generation: An AI pattern where a model first fetches relevant documents then generates a response. We use RAG for FAQs and knowledge bots in custom apps.
RFQ / RFP— Request for Quotation / Proposal: Formal procurement documents. Our presales SLA promises first-draft answers in ≤ 72 h once the NDA is signed.
ROM— Rough-Order-of-Magnitude estimate: A high-speed, early budget signal accurate to roughly ± 30–50 %. Generated by our AI quoting tool within 24 h of a qualification call. Used to decide "go / no-go" before we invest in deep scoping. Tightened later to ± 20 % in Discovery or Sprint Pod phases.
ROI— Return on Investment: The ratio of net benefit to cost. Our Excel ROI calculator helps channel partners articulate payback curves during presales.

S

SLA— Service-Level Agreement: A measurable promise—e.g., "99.9 % monthly uptime," or "bug-fix within 4 h." Base 42 ops includes a standard SLA; higher tiers available.
SoW— Statement of Work: A legally binding schedule that defines scope, deliverables, timeline and price. Fixed-Scope Packs and Milestones each have their own SoW addendum under a master agreement.
SPIFF— Sales Performance Incentive Fund: A one-off bonus paid to external sellers for pushing a strategic service. Example: R20 000 SPIFF on the first DaaS deal > R150k per month.
SRE— Site Reliability Engineering: Discipline that ensures systems are scalable and reliable. Base 42 includes light SRE tasks: alert tuning, incident post-mortems, error-budget tracking.

T

T&M— Time & Materials: Billing based on hours or days worked. Our Sprint Pod model adds a hard weekly cap and transparent dashboards to tame traditional T&M risk.

U

UAT— User Acceptance Testing: Final user-side test phase before go-live. Because our BDD scenarios double as UAT scripts, the hand-off is friction-less.
UX / UI— User Experience / User Interface: The holistic feel and the visual look, respectively. We prototype UX in Lab 42 and polish UI in Forge 42.

V

VAT— Value-Added Tax: Consumption tax levied on invoices where local regulations require it. Shown separately on all quotes and bills.

W

WCAG— Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Standards for making web content usable by people with disabilities. Our component libraries aim for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance out of the box.