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

4 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Assertion Strength What Coverage Does Not Measure, Mutation Score	concept	Mutation Testing	Whether a test would actually fail if the code were wrong - which coverage does not measure and mutation testing does, and which explains defects in fully-covered code.
Mutation Scope Selection Incremental Mutation Analysis, Diff-Scoped Mutation Testing	practice	Mutation Testing	Restricting mutation analysis to the lines a change touches and to code whose failure is expensive, so a technique that costs one to two orders of magnitude more than the test suite still fits inside a pull-re…
Mutation Score	metric	Mutation Testing	The proportion of deliberately introduced faults that the test suite detects — a measure of whether tests would notice a defect, unlike coverage.
Mutation Testing	tool	Mutation Testing	Deliberately introducing small faults into the code and measuring how many the test suite detects, as a measure of test strength rather than test reach.