Definition of Terms

In this chapter, the following terms will be used and are defined here.

Owner refers to the recipient of the web site. The term client refers to the consumer of a server. This convention will be used to reduce the confusion that can result from the interchangeable use of the two synonyms. An owner may be internal to your organization. Owners may be your boss, a member of the sales team, or a marketing representative. Although the motives for each owner may be different, in the end, all owners are acting as a surrogate for the end user, at the very least. The owner always wants the web site to perform some desired task with the lowest expenditure of resources.

The term end user represents the human consumer of some software solution. For example, a person using a web browser to view a web site or a person receiving a file e-mailed from a Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) server are two examples of an end user consuming a solution. The end user interacts with the solution.

The terms software solution, automated solution, and solution are interchangeable. In this chapter, solution is used to represent all three. The solution represents the combination of software and hardware required to perform some amount of work.

The project manager is generally the individual who controls the project from the point that the owner decides to obligate the resource to build the solution to the time of delivery. The project manager manages client expectations and generally bears the ultimate responsibility of meeting project timelines. If the project is being executed as a time and materials contract, the project manager is the advocate for profit on the project.

The business analyst acts as the owner's functional advocate and defines how the solution should work. This person typically owns the functional specification. Individuals who serve in other capacities, such as the project manager or a developer, may serve in this role as well.

Development is a term that represents developers, technical leaders, development managers, and system architects. Many titles and roles within development mean different things to different organizations. In general, the individuals in this role generally write code but do not manage or configure hardware.

Systems professionals manage the hardware. They act as the hardware's advocates- they're usually responsible for managing, configuring, and maintaining the hardware and the operating system. They will configure solutions but they do not produce code.

The UI developer produces the presentation logic for a particular software solution. The Object developer produces the business logic and data logic code.

UML is an acronym for Unified Modeling Language, in which drawings are used to document software, although it can be used to document any process.

Use case is a description of a business event or process that may be performed by the software.

QA is an acronym for Quality Assurance and refers to members of the software team who are responsible for testing the software.