Glossary

The vocabulary, no jargon

Name: NoBullshit Tech-Lead
Author: François-Guillaume Ribreau

The book’s key technical terms, explained simply.

SSoT (single source of truth): One piece of data is authoritative. We avoid duplicating information across systems that eventually diverge.; The book’s principle: Single source of truth →
SoC (Separation of Concerns): Separating responsibilities: each module does one thing well, without stepping on the others.; The book’s principle: Separate concerns →
Technical debt: The future cost of shortcuts taken today. Distinguish suffered debt (you absorb it) from chosen debt (you steer it).; The book’s principle: Acknowledge inherited debt and tame chosen debt →
Library-first: Design a reusable library first, then the application around it. Favors reuse and clean interfaces.; The book’s principle: Favor a library-first approach →
Human map/reduce: Distribute work across people (map) then consolidate (reduce). Powerful but costly in coordination: use sparingly.; The book’s principle: Use human map/reduce sparingly →
Go for the edge: Tackle edge cases early. They reveal the real design problems.
Conway’s law (inverse): A system’s architecture mirrors the organization that builds it. Inverting it means structuring teams to get the architecture you want.; The book’s principle: Scale teams by following the inverse Conway’s law →
UAT (User Acceptance Testing): User acceptance environment. In the book: if you need one, it’s often a sign of a poorly designed product.; The book’s principle: If you have a UAT environment, you’ve failed your product →
Monitoring & alerting: Measure the system’s state (monitoring) and get notified when it goes wrong (alerting). One without the other is useless.; The book’s principle: No monitoring without alerting →
Declarative vs imperative: Describe the desired result (declarative) rather than the sequence of steps (imperative). More readable, more robust.; The book’s principle: Prefer declarative over imperative →