The Tech Dictionary: What We Say Vs. What We Actually Mean

What is tech jargon, and why does it need translating?

Tech jargon is the shorthand developers, designers and digital teams use to describe how software is built and how it behaves. Some of it is genuine industry terminology (AI, machine learning, AR, VR, wayfinding, IoT) and some of it is in-house slang that sounds faintly alarming to anyone outside the dev team. Either way, the meaning is almost never obvious from the words themselves.

When you’re in the development world long enough, the lingo almost becomes background noise. Terms thrown around in meetings or team chats start to feel second nature, and you barely stop to think about what they actually mean anymore. As a Sydney tech and digital company, we know how tricky it can be to keep up. So here is the dictionary: the honest translations first, then the acronyms.

Part one: what we say vs. what we actually mean

This is the internal dialect: the words you’ll hear in a stand-up or a 2am incident call.

Backend

What it sounds like: Something you pull a hamstring trying to stretch.

What it actually is: The secret underground bunker of your app. It’s where all the real work happens (databases, logic, API spells), but no one ever sees it… unless it breaks.

Frontend

What it sounds like: The face you put on before a video call.

What it actually is: The glammed-up part of your app that users interact with. It’s like putting makeup on a robot. Underneath? Still mostly chaos.

Bugs

What it sounds like: Harmless little insects.

What it actually is: Evil digital gremlins hiding in your code, waiting to break things five minutes before the demo. Often found nesting in “that one line I didn’t touch.”

Works on my local

What it sounds like: A farmer talking about his tractor.

What it actually is: Developer for “it’s your problem now.” Translation: it works perfectly on my machine, and if it doesn’t work on yours, it’s obviously your environment’s fault. Probably the moon’s alignment too.

Hit the restart

What it sounds like: Motivational life advice.

What it actually is: The modern version of “turn it off and on again.” Solves 90% of tech issues, 0% of emotional ones.

Deploy

What it sounds like: Sending troops into battle.

What it actually is: A ritual sacrifice of code to the production gods. It can either go smoothly or trigger an emergency team meeting at 2am. No in-between.

Full stack developer

What it sounds like: A well-fed pancake.

What it actually is: Someone who codes the backend, the frontend and the database, fixes the printer, resets your password, and still gets blamed when something crashes.

API

What it sounds like: Something you yell when you stub your toe.

What it actually is: The diplomatic translator between different apps. They say: “Here’s your data, sir.” But they really mean: “Give me the right request format or I’ll return NULL and ruin your day.”

Refactor

What it sounds like: Something they do to old buildings.

What it actually is: The fine art of rewriting your own code while judging past-you harshly. Also known as “how did I ever think this was a good idea?”

Part two: the acronyms in the room

The second half of the dictionary is the terminology that turns up in briefs and budgets. These are the ones worth getting right, because they change what you end up building.

AI: artificial intelligence

Common definitions of artificial intelligence describe it as “the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.” AI systems typically demonstrate a number of behaviours including problem solving, planning, knowledge and learning.

According to ZDNet, there are two broad types of AI: narrow AI and general AI. Narrow AI refers to the things we see computers do daily, being programmed to carry out specific tasks, such as Siri. General AI is different in that it is “a flexible form of intelligence capable of learning how to carry out vastly different tasks…” (think of the AI you see in films like The Terminator). So while we mostly have narrow AI right now, some experts argue we could see more of general AI becoming a reality.

ML: machine learning

Many people continue to confuse AI and machine learning, and while machine learning is indeed a form of AI, the two are not the same.

Machine learning gives systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being directly programmed. Imagine a computer system that is given a huge chunk of data, which it then uses to learn how to carry out a specific task. The main aim of machine learning is to make computers learn without much assistance from humans.

Live chat and chatbots

Live chat. A person types to a person on a website, in real time. Chatbots. Software that answers questions in plain language, often using AI. The two are different, and a project brief that mixes them up gets the wrong thing built.

AR: augmented reality

AR is a technology that expands and changes the perception of our view of the real world by adding layers of digital information on to it. AR allows you to move freely while super-imposing computer-generated images over whatever you are looking at.

It is mostly used in apps for smartphones and tablets, where there are endless possibilities for how it can be applied. As some tech writers put it, “phone-based AR software has been recognising surroundings and providing additional information about what it sees for years now, offering live translation of text or pop-up reviews of restaurants as you look at them.”

VR: virtual reality

Virtual reality uses computer technology to create a simulated environment where, instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed in and able to interact with 3D worlds. In some instances, other senses like taste, smell and hearing are simulated as well. Most VR is experienced through a headset, such as the Meta Quest.

Wayfinding

Digital wayfinding technology and custom mapping is digital information that assists with guiding people through a physical environment and the navigation of indoor spaces and outdoor private spaces where a standard map such as Google Maps is not available or has not been updated. Digital wayfinding is not just about signage. It is the solution that provides navigational directions to users, for example within a hospital or inside a multi-level retail shopping centre. You can read more about digital wayfinding and custom mapping here.

IoT: internet of things

At its most basic, IoT is connecting any device with an on and off switch to the internet, and/or to each other. Everything from our homes, cars, cities and even pets can be connected to the internet, hence the internet of things.

Part three: the words we use about M4

M4 is the platform we assemble Government and Enterprise programs on. These are the words that come up when we explain how it works.

Platform

What it sounds like: A railway station.

What it actually is: The shared foundation a program runs on. M4 is ours.

Core

What it sounds like: The middle of an apple.

What it actually is: The features every program uses as they are, such as sign-in, permissions, content, media and notifications. We run them once, for everyone.

Extended capability

What it sounds like: An upsell.

What it actually is: A core feature we extend for your program, with your own fields and rules, without changing it for anyone else. Think of a beach alert that also carries the species and the beach.

Custom module

What it sounds like: A plug-in you download.

What it actually is: Something we craft only for your program and connect to the core, so it uses the same sign-in, media and notifications as everything else. PatientVR’s headset management is one.

Multi-tenant

What it sounds like: A block of flats with strict rules.

What it actually is: One platform that serves many programs, with each program’s data kept separate.

Speaking the same language

The joke half of this dictionary and the serious half are really the same problem: shorthand only works when everyone in the room shares the same definition. Knowing that a chatbot is not live chat, or that a “refactor” is not a new feature, is the difference between a project brief that means what you think it means and one that quietly doesn’t.

Have you got a favourite? If there’s a tech term you’d like explained, get in touch and we’ll add it to the dictionary. Or take a look at our case studies to see what these terms look like once they stop being jargon and start being software.