DevOps Glossary

In DevOps, an agent refers to a software component that acts autonomously to perform specific tasks, such as monitoring, deployment, or data collection, typically within a distributed system.

Agile is an iterative approach to software development that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback. It focuses on delivering small, incremental improvements in short timeframes, adapting to change, and continuous improvement.

The Agile Manifesto is a set of guiding principles for Agile software development, emphasizing individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change over following a rigid plan and processes.

An Agile organization is one that adopts Agile principles and practices not only in software development but also in its culture, structure, and operations. It values flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement across all functions.

Agile Project Management is an iterative approach to managing projects that aligns with Agile principles. It involves breaking down projects into smaller, manageable tasks, prioritizing them based on value, and continuously adapting plans based on feedback and changing requirements.

Agile Software Development is a methodology that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback to deliver high-quality software incrementally. It involves iterative development, frequent releases, and continuous integration and testing.

Antifragile refers to systems or processes that become stronger and more resilient when exposed to stress, volatility, or uncertainty. In DevOps, embracing antifragility means designing systems that thrive in the face of change and disruption.

Application Release Automation (ARA) is the process of automating the deployment of software releases to production environments. It involves orchestrating and managing the deployment pipeline, ensuring consistency, reliability, and efficiency in releasing software.

In DevOps, an artifact refers to any output or result generated during the software development process, such as compiled code, libraries, or documentation. Artifacts are typically stored in repositories and used in deployment and release processes.

Automation in DevOps involves using technology to streamline and automate repetitive tasks throughout the software development lifecycle, including building, testing, deployment, and monitoring. It improves efficiency, consistency, and reliability.

Autonomy in DevOps refers to empowering teams with the authority and freedom to make decisions and take actions independently within established guidelines and goals. It fosters innovation, ownership, and accountability.

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a software development approach that focuses on defining system behavior in plain language based on user stories or scenarios. It emphasizes collaboration between developers, testers, and business stakeholders to ensure the software meets user expectations.

In Lean methodology, a bottleneck refers to any point in a process where the flow of work is restricted or slowed down, causing delays or inefficiencies in production. Identifying and addressing bottlenecks is crucial for optimizing workflow and improving overall efficiency.

In version control systems like Git, branching refers to creating a separate line of development to work on a feature or fix without affecting the main codebase. Branches allow developers to work in isolation and merge changes back into the main branch when ready.

A Build Agent, also known as a build server or build runner, is a software tool or service responsible for executing automated build processes, such as compiling source code, running tests, and generating deployable artifacts. Build agents are often part of continuous integration and delivery pipelines.

A Build Artifact Repository is a centralized location where compiled code, binaries, and other build artifacts are stored and managed. It facilitates efficient sharing, distribution, and versioning of artifacts across the software development lifecycle.

In DevOps, cadence refers to the rhythm or frequency at which activities, such as deployments, releases, or meetings, occur within a software development team or organization. Establishing a consistent cadence helps maintain momentum and predictability in delivery.

The CALMS Model is a framework for DevOps adoption, focusing on five key areas: Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement, and Sharing. It provides a holistic approach to implementing DevOps practices and principles, emphasizing collaboration and continuous improvement.

A Capacity Test is a type of performance testing that evaluates how well a system performs under specific workload conditions, such as peak usage or anticipated growth. It helps identify bottlenecks, determine resource requirements, and ensure scalability and reliability.

ChatOps is a collaboration model that integrates chat platforms, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, with DevOps tools and workflows. It enables teams to execute commands, monitor systems, and automate tasks directly from chat interfaces, fostering transparency and efficiency.

In version control systems like Git, a commit refers to saving changes to a repository, along with a descriptive message. Commits create a snapshot of the project's state at a specific point in time, enabling collaboration, tracking changes, and version control.

Complex-Adaptive Systems are dynamic systems composed of numerous interacting elements that adapt and self-organize in response to changes and stimuli from their environment. DevOps environments often exhibit characteristics of complex-adaptive systems due to their interconnectedness and emergent behavior.

Configuration Drift refers to the gradual divergence of actual system configurations from their intended or documented state over time. It can occur due to manual changes, updates, or inconsistencies across environments, leading to potential issues and vulnerabilities.

Configuration Management is the process of systematically managing and controlling changes to system configurations throughout their lifecycle. It involves documenting, tracking, and enforcing configuration standards to ensure consistency, reliability, and compliance.

In DevOps, a constraint refers to any factor or limitation that restricts the capacity, efficiency, or performance of a system or process. Identifying and addressing constraints is essential for optimizing workflow and achieving continuous improvement.

In the Theory of Constraints, constraints are any factors that limit a system's ability to achieve its goals. The theory emphasizes identifying and addressing constraints systematically to improve overall system performance and throughput.

Containerization is a virtualization method that encapsulates software applications and their dependencies into lightweight, portable containers. Containers provide isolation, scalability, and consistency across different environments, making deployment and management more efficient.

Containers are lightweight, standalone, and portable software packages that encapsulate applications, libraries, and dependencies. They provide a consistent runtime environment across different infrastructure platforms, enabling efficient deployment, scaling, and management.

Continuous Delivery (CD) is a software development practice that focuses on automating the release process to deliver software changes to production quickly and sustainably. It emphasizes building deployment pipelines, automated testing, and frequent, reliable releases.

Continuous Deployment is an extension of Continuous Delivery where every change that passes automated tests is automatically deployed to production environments. It enables rapid and frequent releases, reducing lead time and improving feedback loops.

Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice that involves regularly merging code changes from multiple developers into a shared repository, followed by automated builds and tests. It helps detect integration errors early, maintain code quality, and accelerate development cycles.

Continuous Quality is the ongoing effort to maintain and improve the quality of software throughout its lifecycle. It involves implementing automated testing, code reviews, monitoring, and feedback mechanisms to ensure that software meets performance, security, and user experience standards.

Continuous Testing is the practice of automating testing throughout the software development lifecycle, from development to deployment. It involves running tests early, often, and in parallel with development, enabling rapid feedback and early detection of defects.

In the context of DevOps, culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms within an organization that influence how teams collaborate, innovate, and deliver software. A DevOps culture promotes transparency, trust, continuous learning, and a focus on customer value.

Deployment is the process of releasing software changes or updates into production environments, making them available for use by end-users. It involves configuring, installing, and activating new or updated software components while ensuring minimal disruption to services.

A Deployment Pipeline is a series of automated stages or steps that software changes go through from development to production deployment. It includes tasks such as building, testing, and deploying code, with the goal of delivering high-quality software quickly and consistently.

DevOps is a cultural and technical movement that emphasizes collaboration, communication, and integration between software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) teams. It aims to automate processes, streamline workflows, and deliver software faster, more reliably, and with higher quality.

DevSecOps is an extension of DevOps that integrates security practices into the software development and delivery process. It aims to build security into every stage of the development lifecycle, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for security and continuous security improvement.

Elasticity refers to the ability of a system or infrastructure to dynamically scale resources up or down in response to changing workload demands. In DevOps, elasticity enables applications to adapt to fluctuations in traffic, ensuring optimal performance and resource utilization.

Event-Driven Architecture is a software design pattern where systems communicate and react to events or messages asynchronously. It decouples components, enabling flexibility, scalability, and responsiveness in distributed and real-time systems.

Exploratory Testing is an approach to software testing where testers explore and discover system behaviors, features, and defects in an unscripted and ad-hoc manner. It emphasizes creativity, intuition, and learning, complementing scripted testing approaches.

Fail Fast is a principle in DevOps that encourages identifying and addressing failures or issues as early as possible in the development lifecycle. It promotes rapid feedback, learning, and adaptation, minimizing the impact of failures and improving overall system resilience.

In the context of DevOps, the First Way represents the flow of work from development through IT operations and to the customer. It emphasizes principles such as optimizing the entire value stream, reducing batch sizes, and increasing feedback loops to deliver value quickly and reliably.

Flow in DevOps refers to the smooth, uninterrupted movement of work through the software development and delivery process. It involves minimizing delays, bottlenecks, and handoffs, ensuring efficient and predictable delivery of value to customers.

Gemba is a Japanese term meaning 'the real place' or 'where the work is done.' In DevOps, Gemba refers to the practice of going to the actual location where work is performed to observe, understand, and improve processes, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement.

Git is a distributed version control system widely used in software development to track changes in source code files. It enables collaboration, branching, merging, and versioning of code repositories, supporting agile development practices and DevOps workflows.

Incident Management is the process of identifying, managing, and resolving unplanned disruptions or incidents that affect IT services or systems. It involves detecting incidents, coordinating response efforts, restoring services, and conducting post-incident analysis to prevent recurrence.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model where third-party providers offer virtualized computing resources over the internet. It includes servers, storage, networking, and other infrastructure components, allowing users to scale resources on-demand and pay for what they use.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, such as code or configuration templates. It enables automation, versioning, and consistency in deploying and managing infrastructure, reducing manual errors and enhancing scalability.

Infrastructure Monitoring is the process of collecting and analyzing data about the performance, availability, and health of IT infrastructure components, such as servers, networks, and databases. It involves monitoring metrics, logs, and events to detect issues, optimize performance, and ensure reliability.

Integration Testing is a software testing technique where individual software modules or components are combined and tested as a group to ensure they work together as expected. It validates interactions between integrated components, uncovering defects and ensuring system reliability.

Issue Tracking is the process of capturing, managing, and resolving software-related issues or tasks throughout the development lifecycle. It involves logging issues, assigning priorities, tracking progress, and communicating status updates to stakeholders, ensuring timely resolution and accountability.

Iterations in software development refer to the repetitive cycles of planning, executing, and reviewing work to achieve specific objectives or deliverables. It involves breaking down projects into manageable tasks, completing them within fixed timeframes, and iterating based on feedback and lessons learned.

Jenkins is an open-source automation server widely used for building, testing, and deploying software projects. It provides a web-based interface for creating and managing automated pipelines, integrating with version control systems, and orchestrating continuous integration and delivery workflows.

Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning 'continuous improvement.' In DevOps, Kaizen refers to the philosophy and practice of making incremental and continuous improvements to processes, systems, and workflows. It fosters a culture of learning, experimentation, and innovation.

Kanban is a visual management method used to optimize workflow and limit work in progress. It involves visualizing work items on a board, organizing them into columns representing different stages of the process, and limiting the number of items in each column to improve flow and efficiency.

A Kanban Board is a visual representation of work items and their status in a Kanban system. It typically consists of columns representing different stages of the workflow, with cards or tasks moving from one column to another as work progresses. Kanban boards facilitate transparency, collaboration, and workflow optimization.

Kata is a Japanese term referring to patterns or routines used for practicing and mastering skills. In DevOps, Kata refers to the practice of using structured exercises and problem-solving techniques to improve skills, knowledge, and teamwork. It emphasizes deliberate practice, reflection, and continuous learning.

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It provides features such as container scheduling, load balancing, and self-healing, enabling efficient and resilient container deployments across distributed environments.

Lead Time in DevOps refers to the time it takes from the initiation of a process, such as a customer request or a code change, to its completion or delivery. It includes all stages of the process, including planning, development, testing, and deployment, providing insights into overall process efficiency and responsiveness.

Lean is a management philosophy and methodology focused on eliminating waste, optimizing processes, and delivering value to customers efficiently. In DevOps, Lean principles, such as value stream mapping, flow optimization, and continuous improvement, guide organizations in achieving faster delivery, higher quality, and greater customer satisfaction.

Lean IT applies Lean principles and practices to the management and delivery of IT services. It emphasizes reducing waste, improving flow, and increasing customer value in IT operations, development, and support processes, aligning IT with business goals and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is a metric used to measure the average time elapsed between consecutive failures of a system or component. It provides insights into the reliability and stability of the system, helping to identify areas for improvement and optimize maintenance strategies.

Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) is a metric used to measure the average time it takes to restore a system or service to normal operation after a failure or incident occurs. It reflects the efficiency and effectiveness of incident response and resolution processes, guiding efforts to minimize downtime and improve reliability.

Microservices are an architectural approach to software development where applications are composed of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Each service is focused on a specific business capability, enabling flexibility, scalability, and rapid development and deployment of complex applications.

Microservices Architecture is a design pattern where software applications are structured as collections of small, independent services that communicate through lightweight protocols. It promotes modularity, flexibility, and resilience, enabling organizations to build and evolve complex systems more efficiently.

Model-Based Testing is a software testing approach where test cases are derived from models or specifications of the system under test. It involves creating models that capture system behavior, generating test cases automatically or semi-automatically from these models, and executing them to validate system functionality and requirements.

Muda is a Japanese term meaning 'waste.' In DevOps, Muda refers to any activity, process, or resource that does not add value to the customer or end-user. Identifying and eliminating Muda is essential for optimizing workflows, improving efficiency, and delivering value more effectively.

Mura is a Japanese term meaning 'unevenness' or 'inconsistency.' In DevOps, Mura refers to variations or fluctuations in workload, processes, or outputs that disrupt flow and efficiency. Minimizing Mura involves balancing workloads, standardizing processes, and optimizing resource allocation.

Muri is a Japanese term meaning 'overburden' or 'strain.' In DevOps, Muri refers to excessive or unreasonable demands placed on people, processes, or systems, leading to stress, inefficiency, and errors. Mitigating Muri involves identifying and addressing root causes of overload, optimizing workloads, and fostering a culture of sustainable pace.

Observability is the ability to understand and infer the internal state and behavior of a system based on its external outputs or observables, such as logs, metrics, and traces. In DevOps, observability enables proactive monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization of systems, facilitating rapid incident response and continuous improvement.

Orchestration is the automated coordination and management of complex systems or workflows, involving multiple tasks, components, or services. In DevOps, orchestration tools and platforms automate deployment, configuration, and scaling of infrastructure and applications, ensuring consistency, reliability, and efficiency.

Pair Programming is a software development technique where two programmers work together at one workstation, collaborating on the same code or task. It promotes knowledge sharing, problem-solving, and code quality, enhancing productivity and reducing defects through real-time feedback and review.

In DevOps, a Pipeline refers to a sequence of automated steps or stages that code changes go through, from development to production deployment. It typically includes tasks such as building, testing, and deploying software, facilitating continuous integration, delivery, and deployment.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model where third-party providers offer platforms and tools for developing, deploying, and managing applications over the internet. It abstracts infrastructure complexities, allowing developers to focus on building and delivering software without worrying about underlying hardware or software layers.

Production refers to the operational environment where software applications or services are deployed and made available to end-users or customers. It represents the live, running instance of the software, requiring stability, reliability, and performance to meet user expectations and business needs.

Provisioning is the process of configuring and allocating resources, such as servers, storage, and networking, to support the deployment and operation of software applications or services. It involves setting up and preparing infrastructure components to meet specific requirements and workload demands.

Quality Assurance (QA) is the process of ensuring that software products and services meet defined quality standards and fulfill customer expectations. It involves planning, executing, and monitoring activities such as testing, code reviews, and quality audits to identify and prevent defects, ensuring reliability, usability, and performance.

A Release refers to making a new version of software or application available for deployment to production or other environments. It involves packaging, documenting, and distributing software changes, ensuring they are ready for deployment and meet quality standards and user requirements.

Release Management is the process of planning, coordinating, and controlling the deployment of software releases to production or other environments. It involves managing release schedules, coordinating release activities, and ensuring smooth transitions between development, testing, and production environments.

Rollback is the process of reverting to a previous version or state of software or infrastructure after a deployment or change has caused issues or failures. It involves restoring backup configurations, data, or code to restore system stability and functionality, minimizing downtime and impact on users.

Scrum is an Agile framework for managing and delivering complex projects. It emphasizes iterative development, self-organizing teams, and continuous improvement. Scrum practices include sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, enabling teams to adapt to changing requirements and deliver value iteratively.

In the context of DevOps, the Second Way represents amplifying feedback loops to create fast and reliable flow of work from development through IT operations and to the customer. It emphasizes creating fast feedback loops, enabling the organization to detect and correct issues quickly, improving overall system resilience and performance.

Self-Service Deployment is a practice where developers or users can deploy and manage software applications or resources without requiring manual intervention from IT or operations teams. It involves providing automated tools, interfaces, or platforms that enable users to provision, configure, and deploy applications independently, enhancing agility and reducing time to market.

Serverless computing is a cloud computing model where cloud providers dynamically manage the allocation and provisioning of resources needed to execute code, eliminating the need for developers to manage server infrastructure. It allows developers to focus on writing and deploying code without worrying about server management, scaling, or maintenance.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contractual agreement between a service provider and a customer that defines the level of service expected, including performance, availability, and support commitments. SLAs help establish mutual expectations, ensure accountability, and provide remedies in case of service disruptions or failures.

Source Control, also known as version control or revision control, is the practice of managing changes to software code and other files. It involves tracking modifications, controlling access, and maintaining a history of revisions, enabling collaboration, code sharing, and version management.

A Staging Environment is a replica of the production environment where software changes are tested before being deployed to production. It mirrors production configurations and data, allowing developers and testers to validate changes, perform integration testing, and identify issues before releasing to production.

Technical Debt refers to the accumulated costs and consequences of choosing quick and expedient solutions over more robust and sustainable ones during software development. It represents unfinished work, suboptimal designs, and deferred maintenance that may increase complexity, impede productivity, and degrade software quality over time.

Test Automation is the practice of using automated tools and scripts to execute tests, validate software functionality, and identify defects. It involves automating repetitive and manual testing tasks, such as regression testing, functional testing, and performance testing, to improve efficiency, coverage, and reliability of testing processes.

Test Driven Development (TDD) is a software development approach where tests are written before writing code. It involves writing automated tests that define desired functionality, writing code to pass those tests, and refactoring code to improve design and maintainability. TDD promotes iterative development, code quality, and test coverage.

The Three Ways represent the principles and practices of DevOps, as outlined in 'The Phoenix Project' by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford. They include the flow of work from development through IT operations and to the customer (First Way), amplifying feedback loops (Second Way), and fostering a culture of continual experimentation and learning (Third Way).

In DevOps, the Third Way emphasizes fostering a culture of continual experimentation, learning, and improvement. It encourages practices such as blameless post-mortems, learning from failure, and promoting innovation and automation to build organizational resilience, agility, and competitiveness.

Time to Value is the amount of time it takes for a product or feature to provide tangible value to the customer or end-user. In DevOps, reducing time to value involves streamlining delivery processes, minimizing lead times, and delivering incremental changes or improvements quickly to meet customer needs and expectations.

A Toolchain refers to a set of interconnected tools, technologies, and processes used in software development and delivery. It includes tools for source control, build automation, testing, deployment, monitoring, and collaboration, facilitating end-to-end automation and integration of DevOps practices and workflows.

Unit Testing is a software testing technique where individual units or components of software are tested in isolation to ensure they function correctly. It involves writing and executing automated tests that verify the behavior of units, such as functions, methods, or classes, validating their functionality, inputs, and outputs.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is the final phase of software testing where end-users or customers validate whether the software meets their requirements and expectations. It involves executing test cases, verifying functionality, and providing feedback to ensure the software is ready for production deployment.

Value Stream Mapping is a Lean management technique used to analyze, visualize, and improve the flow of materials and information required to deliver a product or service to customers. It involves mapping the current state and identifying waste, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks in the value stream, leading to the design of future state maps to streamline processes and enhance value delivery.

Velocity in Agile development refers to the amount of work a team can complete within a specific time period, typically measured in story points or tasks completed per iteration (sprint). It helps teams forecast future work and plan iterations, providing insights into team capacity, productivity, and performance.

Version Control, also known as source control or revision control, is the practice of managing changes to documents, files, or code over time. It involves tracking modifications, controlling access, and maintaining a history of revisions, enabling collaboration, code sharing, and version management.

Virtualization is the process of creating virtual versions of physical hardware, software, storage, or network resources. It enables multiple virtual instances or environments to run on a single physical system, maximizing resource utilization, improving scalability, and reducing infrastructure costs.

A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications. It allows multiple operating systems to run on the same physical hardware, enabling isolation, flexibility, and resource sharing in cloud computing, development, and testing environments.

In Lean methodology, waste refers to any activity, process, or resource that does not add value to the customer or end-user. Common types of waste include overproduction, waiting, unnecessary transportation, excess inventory, overprocessing, defects, and underutilized talent or creativity. Eliminating waste is a fundamental principle of Lean, aiming to optimize efficiency, quality, and value delivery.

Waterfall is a traditional software development methodology where projects progress sequentially through distinct phases, such as requirements gathering, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. It follows a linear, top-down approach with minimal feedback loops, making it less adaptable to changing requirements or environments compared to Agile methodologies.

A Workflow is the sequence of tasks, steps, or actions required to complete a specific process or activity. It defines the order, dependencies, and interactions between individual tasks or components, guiding the execution and automation of work processes to achieve desired outcomes efficiently and consistently.

Work in Progress (WIP) refers to tasks, activities, or items that have been started but are not yet completed. In Kanban and Lean methodologies, limiting WIP helps maintain focus, reduce multitasking, and improve flow and throughput, enabling teams to deliver work more predictably and efficiently.