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Abbreviations in Software Development

John Jacob on July 26, 2020

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 kno...
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Michiel Hendriks

Also a really important one is TMA: Too Many Acronyms.

Pro-tip: always try to avoid using acronyms. When you do, define it on first usage.

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John Jacob

Couldn't agree more — God the overuse of acronyms is so frustrating. I try to always write it out at least once before using it, even casually in slack every new context.

Something like:

Our Objective Key Results (OKR's) are looking good this month, however when looking at our OKR's let's be sure we update them consistently. That way Management has good visibility of OKR progress and blockers.

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Andrew Harpin

My favourite is TITSUP, Total Inability To Support Usual Performance

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Vijay Anand

It is great to have such a list in a commonplace. You can also consider adding the below item in your list,
JSON - JavaScript Object Notation

Typo mistakes to be fixed,
WSYWG -> WYSIWYG
CPP -> CPC: Cost per Click
CRT -> CTR - Click Through Ratio

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John Jacob

Fixed ✔️

Thanks!

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Ashley Sheridan

Cron isn't actually an acroynm, it gets its name originally from the Greek personification of time Chronus. This makes sense, as cron is a tool for running tasks at chronological intervals.

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Mohammed Samgan Khan

you put CRO two times but awesome bro.
really helpful..

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John Jacob

Fixed — thanks ✔

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John Jacob

Added — thanks ✌️

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Divyansh Batham

You can also add:

KT - Knowledge Transfer
ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival

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Afrida Anzum Aesha

You can include these also :
POC : Proof of Concept
RFQ : Request for Quotation
RFI : Request for Information
PO : Purchase Order
WO : Work Order
SKU : Stock Keeping Unit

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John Jacob

Added — thanks!

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Ilias Tsitsas

Am I the only one bothered by the column inconsistency?