The following is a list of terminology you may find useful.
| Term or Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|
| AWS | Amazon Web Services |
| Azure | Microsoft cloud service |
| AGILE | An iterative approach to software development |
| APN | Amazon Partner Network |
| B2B | Business to business |
| B2C | Business to consumer |
| Bench | Unallocated staff at a supplier, typically waiting between projects. Availability of bench staff allows supplier to respond rapidly and be flexible. |
| Contract | A written agreement that is binding between the two parties (client and supplier), that descibres the task, rates and conditions associated with the work and payment. |
| Fixed Price | A predetermined charge for a specific piece of work. The client benefits from a known price for the task, and any risk is borne by the supplier. In return the supplier will factor the extra risk into the cost. |
| Freelancer | SIngle person that operates as an individual to provide resourcing or work on small projects. |
| FP | Fixed Price |
| HOT | Heads of Terms |
| Hybrid | The supplier operates a mixed model where the majority of the work is done by offshore teams but one or more staff are are onshore or often in the clients office to facilitate communciation. |
| ISO | International Standards organsiation |
| ISO9001 | ISO standard for Quality Management System |
| ISO27001 | ISO standard for Information Security Management System |
| Less | Large scale scrum, an agile framework. |
| MPN | Microsoft Partner Network |
| NDA | Non disclosure agreement |
| Nearshore | The supplier is located in a geographic region that is not in the same country but not as far away as offshore. Typically a UK client would consider Europe as nearshore. |
| Onshore | The work is done by a team located in the area/country the client is based. |
| Offshore | The supplier development team is located in a different country, often a significant distance away, further than nearshore. Example a UK company would consider an Indian supplier as offshore. |
| Outsource | Outsourcing refers to the process of giving work or a project to a 3rd party outside of the client business, regardless of the geogrpahy the supplier is located in. |
| kanban | A development framework that is an agile approach, and is primarily concerned with managing work in progress. |
| Resource pool | Unallocated staff at a supplier, typically waiting between projects. Availability of bench staff allows supplier to respond rapidly and be flexible. |
| Safe | Scaled agile framework at enterprise scale. |
| scrum | A development framework that follows the AGILE approach. |
| Shadow resource | Supplier staff that are not billed but are in resever for a specific project or mirroring/shadowing billable resources ready to quickly step in if required. |
| T&M | Time and Materials |
| 100% resourcing | The supplier guarantees to provide a specified number of staff at all times, and hence will have shadow resources ready to fill in for staff holidays/absence/training leave etc. |
| Waterfall | A software development methodology, where the requirements and design are done completely at the start of the project and then coding and testing are completed in a linear sequence. |