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
Event Time Versus Processing Time	concept	Windowing	The distinction between when something happened and when the system saw it, which determines whether results are reproducible.
Event Time vs Processing Time	concept	Windowing	The distinction between when something happened in the world and when the system got round to handling it.
Window Overlap Factor Hop Multiplier, Sliding Window Fan-Out	metric	Windowing	The ratio of a sliding window's size to its advance - the number of windows each record belongs to, and therefore the multiplier on state, output volume and any naive sum taken downstream.
Windowing Strategy	concept	Windowing	The choice of how a continuous stream is divided into finite groups for aggregation, which determines both the meaning of the result and the state it requires.