Terminology

2205 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 areas2205 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 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 concept794 practice734 pattern368 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

4 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Data Catalog	tool	Data Governance	A searchable inventory of datasets with their schema, owner, meaning, freshness, quality and classification.
Data Governance	practice	Data Governance	Making data ownership, meaning, quality and access explicit — the mechanism that keeps a data platform trustworthy as it grows.
Data Lineage	practice	Data Governance	A record of where each dataset came from, what transformed it, and what depends on it — traced at table and ideally column level.
Expand and Contract Migration Parallel Change, Expand-Migrate-Contract	practice	Data Governance	Changing a schema through a sequence of individually backward-compatible steps, so old and new application versions can run simultaneously.