ch 14 vocab

Question 1

computer hardware

Answer 1

the physical components of information technology, which can include the computer itself plus peripherals such as storage devices, input devices (mouse and keyboard), output devices (monitors and printers), networking equipment, etc.

Question 2

software

Answer 2

a computer program or a collection of programs; it is a precise set of instructions that tells hardware what to do

Question 3

operating system

Answer 3

the software that controls the computer hardware and establishes standards for developing and executing applications

Question 4

applications

Answer 4

includes desktop applications, enterprise software, utilities, and other programs that perform specific tasks for users and organizations

Question 5

user interface (ui)

Answer 5

the mechanism through which users interact with a computing device; includes elements of the graphical user interface (or gui, “gooey”), such as windows, scroll bars, buttons, menus, and dialogue boxes; can also include other forms of interaction (ex: touch screens, motion sensing controllers, or tactile devices used by the visually impaired)

Question 6

firmware

Answer 6

software stored on nonvolatile memory chips (as opposed to being stored on devices such as hard drives or removable discs). despite seeming permanent in nature, many products allow for it to be upgraded online or by connecting to another device

Question 7

embedded systems

Answer 7

special-purpose software designed and included inside physical products (often on firmware); help make devices “smarter,” sharing usage information, helping diagnose problems, indicating maintenance schedules, providing alters, or enabling devices to take orders from other systems

Question 8

platforms

Answer 8

products and services that allow for the development and integration of software products and other complementary goods. ex: windows, ios, android, and the standards that allow users to create facebook apps

Question 9

desktop software

Answer 9

applications installed on a personal computer, typically supporting tasks performed by a single user

Question 10

enterprise software

Answer 10

applications that address the needs of multiple users throughout an organization or work group

Question 11

software package

Answer 11

a software product offered commercially by a third party

Question 12

enterprise resource planning (erp)

Answer 12

a software package that integrates the many functions (accounting, finance, inventory, management, human resources, etc.) of a business

Question 13

customer relationship management (crm)

Answer 13

systems used to support customer-related sales and marketing activities

Question 14

supply chain management (scm)

Answer 14

systems that can help a firm manage aspects of its value chain, from the flow of raw materials into the firm, through delivery of finished products and services at the point-of-consumption

Question 15

business intelligence (bi) systems

Answer 15

systems that use data created by other systems to provide reporting and analysis for organizational decision-making

Question 16

database management system (dbms)

Answer 16

sometimes referred to as database software; software for creating, maintaining, and manipulating data

Question 17

distributed computing

Answer 17

a form of computing where systems in different locations communicate and collaborate to complete a task

Question 18

server

Answer 18

a program that fulfills the requests of a client

Question 19

client

Answer 19

a software program that makes requests of a server program

Question 20

application server

Answer 20

software that houses and services business logic for use (and reuse) by multiple applications

Question 21

web services

Answer 21

small pieces of code that are accessed via the application service, and permit interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network

Question 22

apis

Answer 22

programming hooks, or guidelines, published by firms that tell other programs how to get a service to perform a task such as send or receive data. ex: amazon.com provides apis to let developers write their own applications and websites that can send the firm orders

Question 23

service-oriented architecture (soa)

Answer 23

a robust set of web services built around an organization’s processes and procedures

Question 24

electronic data interchange (edi)

Answer 24

a set of standards for exchanging messages containing formatted data between computer applications

Question 25

extensible markup language (xml)

Answer 25

a tagging language that can be used to identify data fields made available for use by other applications. most apis and web services send messages where the data exchanged is wrapped in identifying these tags

Question 26

javascrip object notation (json)

Answer 26

a popular data interchange format; a technology standard often used to format data when being sent or received via apis

Question 27

programming language

Answer 27

provides the standards, syntax, statements, and instructions for writing computer software

Question 28

integrated development environment (ide)

Answer 28

an application that includes an editor (a soft of programmer's word processor), debugger, and compiler, among other tools

Question 29

compile

Answer 29

step in which progrm code written in a language that humans can more easily understand, is then converted into a form (expressed in patterns of ones and zeros) that can be understood and executed by a microprocessor. programmers using conventional programming languages must do this to their software before making it available for execution

Question 30

java

Answer 30

a programming language, initially developed by sun microsystems, designed to provide true platform independence ("write once, run anywhere") for application developers. in most cases, apps are developed to be executed by a java virtual machine - an interpreting later that translates code as it executes, into the format required by the operating system and microprocessor. without this, application developers have to write and compile software to executive natively by a specific operating system/microprocessor combination (ex: windows/intel, linux powerpc, mac/intel, linux/intel)

Question 31

scripting languages

Answer 31

programming tool that executives within an application; often interpreted within their applications, rather than compiled to run directly by a microprocessor

Question 32

interpreted

Answer 32

languages where each line of written code if converted (by a software program, called an "interpreter") for execution at run-time. most scripting languages are interpreted languages; many programmers also write java applications to be interpreted by the java virtual machine

Question 33

software development methodologies

Answer 33

sometimes referred to as the sdlc or software development life cycle; methods to divide tasks related to software creation and deployment up into tasks targeted at building better products with stronger product management guidelines and techniques

Question 34

waterfall method

Answer 34

a relatively linear sequential approach to software development (and other projects). benefits include surfacing requirements up front and creating a blueprint to follow throughout a project; often criticized for being too rigid, slow, and demanding project forethought that't tough to completely identify early on

Question 35

feature creep

Answer 35

an expansion of the scope of a project

Question 36

agile development

Answer 36

developing work continually and iteratively, with a goal of more frequent product rollouts and constant improvement across smaller components of the larger projectsc

Question 37

scrum

Answer 37

an approach to organizing and managing agile projects that breaks deliverables into "sprints" delivered in one-to-six week increments by teams of fewer than ten; defined functions (roles) for management and development, meetings (ceremonies), and how the process is documented and tracked (artifacts)

Question 38

compliance

Answer 38

ensuring that an organization's systems operate within required legal constraints, and industry and organizational obligations

Question 39

total cost of ownership

Answer 39

an economic measure of the full cost of owning a product (typically computing hardware and/or software); includes direct costs such as purchase price, plus indirect costs such as training, support, and maintenance

Question 40

capability maturity model integration (cmmi)

Answer 40

a process-improvement approach (useful for but not limited to software engineering projects) that can assist in assessing the maturity, quality, and development of certain organizational business processes, and suggest steps for their improvement