Terminology

2225 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 areas2225 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture94 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture86 Cost Architecture & FinOps71 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization71 AI-Era Architecture74 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 Architecture69 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics74 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk69

Kind Any concept801 practice736 pattern377 metric127 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

7 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Core Web Vitals	metric	Core Web Vitals	A small set of user-centred performance metrics covering loading, interactivity and visual stability, measured on real users rather than in a lab.
Cumulative Layout Shift	metric	Core Web Vitals	The extent to which visible content moves unexpectedly during load, which correlates with mis-taps and is almost entirely preventable by reserving space.
Flag Propagation Time Flag Convergence Time, Kill Switch Latency	metric	Client Feature Flags	The worst-case delay between changing a feature flag and every client acting on the new value - the number that determines whether a flag can be used as a safety control or only as a release convenience.
Interaction to Next Paint INP, Responsiveness Metric	metric	Real User Monitoring	A field metric reporting one of the slowest complete interactions on a page - input delay plus handler processing plus the wait for the next paint - which replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital on 12 M…
Long Task Main-Thread Blocking Task, Long Animation Frame	metric	Web Performance Budgets	Any single piece of work holding the browser's main thread for more than 50 ms, during which no input is handled and nothing is painted - the unit in which an unresponsive page is actually measured.
Third-Party Weight Budget Tag Budget, Non-Application Script Allowance	metric	Web Performance Budgets	An enforced allowance for scripts the application build does not produce - count, bytes and main-thread time - with a named owner and a technical enforcement point, because these are the scripts a bundle-size …
Time to Interactive Gap	metric	Hydration Cost	The interval between a page appearing complete and actually responding to input, during which the user's taps do nothing.