Abbreviations in Software Development
Tags: webdev, beginners, discuss, tips
Published: 2020-07-26 17:43:38

One of my pet peeve's in the software world is how much we all use abbreviations. Technical or non-technical. Seems half the time we don't even know what they mean. 

I've put together a reasonably complete list here of the most common ones the industry seems to use too much. 

We actually walk through and explain a bunch of these in the [most recent episode of our podcast](https://iteration.simplecast.com/episodes/essential-abbreviations-in-software-development) — Iteration, a podcast about software development and design. 


Comment below with essential ones I've missed or gotten wrong. Might turn this into a Github repo so we can try to get a source of truth around this insanity. 



### Technical / General Software

- CROn: Command ron on
- URL: Uniform Resource Locator
- TTL: Time to Live   — Example a cache's TTL
- DOM: Document Object Model
- HTML: Hypertext Markup Language
- CLI: Command Line Interface (CLI)
- API: Application Program Interface (API)
- TDD: Test Driven Development
- CI: Continuous Integration (CI)
- UX: User Experience
- UI: User Interface
- CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
- IDE: Integrated Development Environment
- FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
- TLD (Top Level Domain) (.com, .net, .car)
- SSO	Single Sign On
- JS: JavaScript
- AJAX	Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
- GUID	Global Unique Identifier
- GUI Graphical User Interface
- OOP	Object Oriented Programming
- ORM	Object Relational Mapping
- DSL: Domain Specific Language
- REGEX	Regular Expression
- PHP	Personal Home Page/PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
- REST	Representational State Transfer
- SDK	Software Development Kit
- SQL	Structured Query Language
- XML	Extensible Markup Language
- 2FA: Two factor authentication
- DNS: Domain Name Servers
- Web RTC — web real time communications
- FOSS — Free Open Source Software
- WYSIWYG: What you see is what you get
- JSON - JavaScript Object Notation
- TS: Type Script 
- POC : Proof of Concept

### Marketing  / Sales

- CTA: CTA: Call-to-Action
- CTR: Click-through Rate
- CPL: Cost Per Lead
- CPA: Cost per Action
- CPC: Cost per click
- PPC Pay per click  
- CR: Conversion Rate
- CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
- CMS: Content Management System
- PDP: Product Detail Page
- PLP: Product Listing Page
- SEO: Search Engine Optimization
- SEM: Search Engine Marketing
- SMM: Social Media Marketing
- MAP (Marketing Automation Platform)
- MQL: Marketing Qualified Leads
- LPO (Landing Page Optimization)


### Business Terms

- KPI: Key Performance Indicators
- OKR: Objective Key Results
- RFP: Request for Proposal
- IC: Individual contributor
- P/E - Price-to-earnings ratio (How much does the stock cost vs how much does the company earn?)
- P&L - Profit and Loss — How much money comes in the door and what they lost to get it
- ROI - Return on Investment
- WC - Working Capital (Liquid money to spend)
- B2B - Business to Business
- B2C - Business to Consumer
- D2C - direct to consumer
- BD - Business Development
- QA - Quality Assurance
- YTD: Year to Date
- CRM: Customer Relationship Management
- MOM: Month over Month (compares a metric over to previous month)
- SAAS	Software as a Service
- ERP	Enterprise Resource Planning
- EPD — Engineering Product and Design
- NDA	Non-Disclosure Agreement
- YoY	Year On Year (compares a metric over to previous year)
- RDD	Requirements Definition Document
- PRD Product Requirements Definition
- RFQ : Request for Quotation
- RFI : Request for Information
- PO : Purchase Order
- WO : Work Order
- SKU : Stock Keeping Unit