Friday, August 31, 2007

Definitions

The English language is an amazing thing.  We have multiple words that mean the same thing and single words that can mean multiple things.  Here are some examples were there can be great confusion over the meaning of a word:


Concurrent users.  To the non-technical user this is the number of users actively using the application.  To the technical person it means the number of people using the application at any one point in time.  The biggest difference is that the more technical  definition specifies an exact period.


Application Downtime.  To the business area the application is down if any portion of the application is unavailable to any portion of the target audience.  To others it means that the entire application is unavailable to the entire audience.


Emergency Change.  This is a situation where there is an immediate need for action or the inaction may cause harm to the organization.  To the more technical  this means an all-nighter and having to convince Don that the deployment request is actually an emergency.


Technical Discussion.  To the business area this is a meeting where the technical people want to get together to discuss something without the business area hearing about it.  To the technical people ... well, I guess everyone agrees here.


A common understanding can go a long ways towards making things run a lot smoother.  For everyone.

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