Terminology

2240 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 areas2240 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture94 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience80 Observability75 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 Architecture71 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 concept806 practice738 pattern379 metric133 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

5 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Fake Drift Virtualisation Divergence, Stale Mock	concept	Service Virtualisation	The divergence between a simulated dependency and the real one it stands in for - which makes tests pass while the real integration fails, producing confidence rather than caution.
Recorded Interaction Corpus Traffic-Recorded Fixtures, Captured Interaction Set	practice	Service Virtualisation	A set of real request and response pairs captured from a live dependency and used to build and continuously re-verify its stand-in, so the fake reproduces evidence rather than the author's assumptions.
Service Stub Fidelity	concept	Service Virtualisation	How faithfully a stand-in dependency reproduces the real one's behaviour — including its errors, latency and limits — which bounds what testing against it proves.
Service Virtualisation API Simulation, Mock Server	tool	Service Virtualisation	A stand-in for a real dependency that responds with realistic data, latency and error behaviour, so a service can be tested without it.
Test Double Stub, Mock, Fake, Spy	concept	Service Virtualisation	Any stand-in for a real collaborator in a test - and the five kinds differ in what they let you assert, which is why using the wrong one produces tests that break on refactoring or pass while the code is wrong.