Terminology

2185 terms, tools, patterns and metrics an architect is expected to use precisely. Each one gets a short explanation of what it is, and — where it matters — what it is commonly confused with. Search filters as you type; the column headers sort.

All areas2185 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture89 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture81 Cost Architecture & FinOps66 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization66 AI-Era Architecture69 Software Architecture & Engineering71 Architecture Patterns71 Architecture Decision-Making63 The Architect's Meta-Skills61 Delivery & Release Engineering66 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience70 Testing & Quality Architecture66 Data Platform Architecture64 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics69 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk64

Kind Any concept785 practice729 pattern362 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

21 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Application Architecture	concept	Application Architecture	The set of applications, what each is responsible for, and how they relate — the view that reveals duplication and orphaned ownership.
Application Landscape	concept	Application Architecture	The inventory of systems in an organisation with their ownership, capabilities supported, integrations and lifecycle status.
Architecture Development Method	concept	TOGAF	TOGAF's iterative cycle for developing enterprise architecture, which is valuable as a checklist of concerns and harmful when followed literally.
Architecture Governance Model	concept	Architecture Governance	The definition of which architectural decisions require which level of scrutiny, and who holds the authority for each.
Behavioural Specification Gap Structure-Only Reference, Diagram-Level Standard	concept	Reference Architectures	The omission in a reference architecture that specifies components and call directions but not behaviour under failure - so every team that complies invents the same timeout and retry defaults and produces the…
Capability Decomposition Depth Capability Map Depth, Capability Level Choice	concept	Capability Maps in EA	The level at which a capability map stops describing what a business does and starts describing how it is currently organised - the point past which it must be redrawn at every reorganisation and its refresh c…
Decision Rights Boundary Decision Scope Line, Local Versus Enterprise Decision	concept	EA Domains	The line separating choices a team may make alone from choices that bind other teams - drawn by where the consequence of a mistake lands, not by the cost, size or difficulty of the decision.
EA Domain Layers	concept	EA Domains	The four conventional layers of enterprise architecture — business, data, application and technology — each answering a different question about the estate.
EA Domains	concept	EA Domains	The four conventional views of an enterprise — business, data, application, technology — and what each is actually for.
EA Frameworks	concept	EA Frameworks	The available enterprise architecture frameworks, what each contributes, and the common failure of adopting one wholesale.
Enterprise Integration	concept	Enterprise Integration	How applications across an estate exchange data — where the topology matters more than the technology and canonical models are the recurring trap.
Exception Union Requirements Union, Consolidation Scope Creep	concept	Application Rationalisation	The failure mode of consolidation programmes in which the replacement system inherits the union of every source system's local exceptions, making it more complex than any system it replaces.
Governance Operating Model	concept	Architecture Governance	The arrangement of decision rights, review points and automated controls through which architectural intent is maintained across an organisation.
Integration Landscape	concept	Enterprise Integration	The inventory of connections between systems, which is usually larger, less documented and more expensive than the application inventory itself.
Platform Teams	concept	Platform Teams	Teams providing self-service internal capability to reduce the cognitive load on delivery teams — distinguished from a service desk by self-service.
Reference Architecture	concept	Reference Architectures	A pre-decided template for a recurring class of solution, capturing the decisions that do not need making again.
Standardisation Blast Radius Monoculture Exposure, Standard Concentration	concept	Technology Standards	The property that a technology standard concentrates exposure as well as capability - one flaw in the standardised component applies to the whole estate - which turns the ability to change it everywhere at sho…
System of Record Authoritative Source, Golden Source	concept	EA Domains	The single system authoritative for a business entity, from which all other copies derive - the absence of which is the dominant source of enterprise complexity.
Target-State Decay Architecture Plan Decay, Target Architecture Drift	concept	Architecture Roadmaps	The rate at which an approved target architecture stops being correct - mostly for organisational reasons rather than technical ones - and the reason a plan with no review date turns into a set of case-by-case…
Technology Architecture	concept	Technology Architecture	The platforms, infrastructure and runtimes the estate depends on — where the recurring architectural problem is obsolescence rather than choice.
Zombie Integration Orphaned Interface, Decommissioning Debris	concept	Application Rationalisation	An interface left running after the system at one end is retired - it consumes credentials and produces stale or lost data, prevents the savings from being booked, and makes the surrounding estate harder to change.