Glossary
Plain-English definitions of technical terms that business owners encounter when evaluating, buying, or managing software projects.
Backlink
What It Actually Means A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat them as evidence: if credible sites reference you, you are probably worth showing. It remains among the strongest factors in whether a site can compete for commercially valuable terms, and it is the part of SEO that cannot be manufactured by working harder...
Backlog
What It Actually Means The backlog is the ordered list of everything that might be built and has not been yet: features, fixes, improvements, ideas. The important word is ordered. A backlog is not a wish list, it is a queue, and the order is the real roadmap regardless of what any roadmap document says. Whatever sits at the top...
Backup
What It Actually Means A backup is a copy of your data held somewhere separate, kept so that you can get back to a known good state after something goes wrong. The word does a lot of quiet damage, because it makes people think about the copy. The copy is the easy part and it is not what protects you....
Bounce Rate
What It Actually Means Bounce rate is the share of visits where somebody arrived and left without a second interaction. The important thing to know before discussing it is that the definition changed. In older analytics a bounce was a single-page visit, however long they stayed. In GA4 it is the inverse of engagement, where an engaged session means more...
About the Glossary
Why Plain Language Matters More Than Technical Fluency
Every software project involves terminology that business owners are expected to understand but rarely have reason to learn. Developers use terms like API, CI/CD, middleware, and bearer token as if everyone shares the same vocabulary. When a client nods along without fully understanding, decisions get made on incomplete information. That gap between technical language and business understanding is where the most expensive mistakes happen: approving architectures you cannot evaluate, signing off on testing strategies you cannot verify, and accepting timelines based on concepts you have not had properly explained.
This glossary exists to close that gap. Each entry provides a plain-English definition, an explanation of why the term matters to your business, and a concrete example of the concept in action. These are not textbook definitions written for computer science students. They are practical explanations for the person who needs to make decisions about software without becoming a developer in the process.
We built this glossary from the questions our clients ask in discovery calls, during project reviews, and in Slack threads where someone finally admits they are not sure what a term means. The entries reflect what business owners need to understand, not what a technical writer thinks is important. Across hundreds of client engagements, we have found that the single biggest predictor of a smooth project is a client who understands enough vocabulary to ask the right questions. Not to write the code. Just to evaluate the answers they are given.
The definitions here deliberately link to deeper content elsewhere on the site. If a glossary entry sparks a question about how we implement something, the Knowledge Center, Services, and Systems sections have the full picture. The glossary is the starting point, not the destination.
Need a Term Explained?
If you have come across a term we have not covered yet, let us know and we will add it.