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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

5 terms shown.

Term Kind Topic What it is
Contract Enforcement Point Producer-Side Enforcement, Shift-Left Contract Checking practice Data Contracts Where a data contract is actually checked - which determines whether a breaking change fails in the producer's build or in a consumer's pipeline at 2 a.m.
Data Contract Producer Contract, Schema Agreement, Published Interface pattern Data Contracts An explicit agreement between a data producer and its consumers covering schema, semantics, quality and change policy - which converts an implicit dependency on someone else's internal table into a managed int…
Data Contract pattern Data Contracts An explicit, versioned, enforceable agreement between a data producer and its consumers covering schema, semantics, quality and delivery.
Producer Obligation concept Data Contracts What a data contract binds the producing team to do, and — crucially — what happens in their pipeline when they are about to break it.
Producer-Enforced Contract Contract That Fails the Build, Upstream Enforcement practice Data Contracts A data contract checked in the producing team's own pipeline, so a breaking change is blocked before it ships - without which the contract is documentation and the breakage is discovered downstream.