Here you can find terms that you encounter every day when working with your colleagues, PMs, developers, designers, basically with your new project team

Welcome to the QA team glossary!

The glossary is meant to help you get familiar with words and phrases commonly used in everyday work. If you ever get confused or lost with the word used on your project weekly, the first thing you can do is check out our glossary!

A

• Accessibility - is the practice of making websites or apps usable by as many people as possible. We traditionally think of this as being about people with disabilities, but the practice of making sites accessible also benefits other groups such as those using smaller mobile devices, or those with slow network connections
• Agile - A particular way of working, a set of values and principles. It is an iterative approach to project management and software development where the focus is delivering work (builds with features) in small increments. It works by breaking projects down into little bits of user functionality called user stories, prioritizing them, and then continuously delivering them in short cycles. Contrary to betting everything on a big launch (waterfall method).
• Alert - alerts convey important information related to the state of your app or the device, and often request feedback. An alert consists of a title, an optional message, one or more buttons, and optional text fields for gathering input.
• Alfred - is an app for macOS that boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion, and more (An advanced "Spotlight" for quickly executing certain actions).
• ADB (Android Debug Bridge) - a versatile command-line tool used for communicating with your Android device via the terminal.
• Android File Transfer - used for transferring files between an Android phone and a macOS system.
• Android ROM - a file containing the executable instructions (a system image) of an Android OS and affiliated apps. The "stock ROM" comes installed on the phone or tablet, while a "custom ROM" comes from a third party.
• Android Studio - is the official integrated development environment for Google's Android operating system.
• API (Application Programming Interface) - Application Programming Interface, software that enables 2 different systems to talk to one another (using JSON in most cases), like a power plug - the standardized interface between the power grid and house appliance that hides the complex and, for the user, unnecessary stuff.
• App environments - an environment is the application's mechanism for bringing together components with the agent that deploys them. Environments are typically modeled on some stage of the software project lifecycle, such as development or production.
• Appbot - the tool we use for collecting and monitoring user app reviews.
• Appium - Selenium's mobile analogue, used for automating hybrid and native mobile apps. We use it for mobile UI automation.

B

• Backlog refinement - the activity of creating and refining product backlog items, estimating and prioritizing them.
• Ballpark estimate - a ballpark estimate or figure is a number that is a guess, but one that you believe is near the correct number.
• Bash - command language and shell.
• Broken Link Checker - a tool that finds broken and malicious links in HTML documents and CSS files.
• Browserstack - enables you to test mobile ("App Live") and web apps ("Live") remotely on real devices.
• Bug - a software bug is an error, flaw, or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.
• Bug Magnet - exploratory testing assistant for Chrome (Just right-click on any editable item on the page and insert names, numbers, currencies, payment cards, etc. Check boundaries and edge cases for exploratory testing.)
• Burndown chart - is a graphic representation of how quickly the team is working through user stories. It shows the total effort against the amount of work.

C

• Cache - Temporary storage space for data. When you visit a website, the files that you request are automatically stored in the cache. If you return to that same website in the near future, your browser will retrieve the necessary files from your cache rather than from the original server—so the webpage will load quicker.
• Charles - a proxy app used for examining network traffic between your device and a server by staging a man-in-the-middle attack.
• Chrome DevTools - a set of web developer tools built directly into the Google Chrome browser.
• ChroPath - a Google Chrome extension that will help you locate web elements when doing UI automation.
• Chuck(er) - is used for inspecting network traffic in Android apps. You can access it from the notifications drawer when the app is running.
• Clear Session - a Google Chrome extension that will clear all session/cookie data for a particular web page.
• CMS (Content Management System) - a content management system is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content.
• Code snippet - a code snippet is a small block of reusable code.
• Cookies - are files created by websites you visit. They make your online experience easier by saving browsing information. With cookies, sites can keep you signed in, remember your site preferences, and give you locally relevant content.
• CopyClip - a simple and efficient clipboard manager for your Mac.
• Crashlytics - a part of Firebase; used for getting crash/error logs from mobile apps.
• CTA (Call to Action) - Usually refers to a button or other UI element which prominently invites the user to take action on a website or in an app Examples: “Sign-up for our newsletter”, “Share on social media”, “Sign-up”, “Get started”, “Add to cart”, “Buy now” and so on.

D

• Daily Scrum - also referred to as the daily stand-up, is a (daily) recurring time-boxed meeting (e.g. 15 minutes or less) at which team members are taking turns answering three questions: 1. What did I accomplish since the last daily Scrum?; 2. What do I plan to work on by the next daily Scrum?; 3. What are the obstacles or impediments that are preventing me from making progress?
• Debugging - Process of identifying, dealing with, and removing bugs. There are different types of bugs: syntax errors, typos, or errors in logic.
• Decision maker - a person, usually from the client team, responsible for making key decisions that move the project forward.
• Deployment - All activities that are required to make software or updates available to the users or other software.
• DevOps - methodology/a way of working (and also a role - DevOps engineer) where teams cooperate more closely, each team knows what the other one is doing and they are constantly communicating. Small chunks of code are constantly made, tested, put into production, and monitored.
• DOD (Definition of Done) - drives the quality of work and is used to assess when a user story has been completed.
• DOR (Definition of Ready) - means that user stories must be immediately actionable. The team must be able to determine what needs to be done and the amount of work required.

E

• Edge case - a use case or a situation that can rarely happen, and is often unexpected or overlooked while designing or programming.
• EOD (End of the Day) - usually refers to a deadline set by yourself or your project manager.
• EOY (End of the Year) - usually refers to a project deadline or quarterly goal deadline.
• Exploratory testing - means testing with existing experience and knowledge of the mobile app or website. This insight gives the QA tester the ability to have a focused engagement without following formal test cases. Or in other words, testing the whole app without any specific plan or without using test cases.

F

• FakeGPS - a tool for mocking your GPS location.
• Feature - in software development, features are the "tools" you use within a system to complete a set of tasks or actions. Functionality is how those features actually work to provide you with the desired outcome.
• Figma - a vector graphics editor and prototyping tool which is primarily web-based, with additional offline features enabled by desktop applications for macOS and Windows.
• FT (Full time) - eight working hours per day.
• Form validation - mechanism of checking if something is done by certain requirements, mostly used for content found inside the fields like Amount, Name, Address...
• Framework - reverse usage of code you are writing (in contrast to libraries). Libraries are there to be called into your code when needed and Frameworks are there to be the ones who are calling. It is like a skeleton (or template) with empty spots which you fill out with your code.
• Full-stack developer - Type of developer who works (and is proficient) across all three layers: the frontend, the backend, and the database layer, understanding all three layers enable him to develop and maintain complete applications.

G

• Git - the most popular Version Control System. Developers can make an initial version of an app and each time it is needed, they can make a new version. It is like a super-charged Save button in Word - you can save the document each time you want, but you can see each iteration, changes made, comments and restore each iteration when needed.
• GitHub - cloud-based Git repository hosting service. A place where you can store your version control projects. GitHub provides you with all Git features but also expands it with visually intuitive UI and additional tools.
• GMS - Google Mobile Services.
• Google Analytics - a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.
• Google Authenticator - for keeping your 2FA credentials.
• Google Calendar - a time-management and scheduling calendar service (your personal diary lives here).
• Google Drive - file storage and synchronization service (important stuff lives here).
• Google Firebase - another analytics tool that is so much more. It provides tools for tracking analytics, reporting and fixing app crashes, creating marketing and product experiment.
• Google Keep - for taking notes.
• Google Play Beta - allows you to do prerelease testing before letting the app out into the wilderness.

H

• Hit area - touch target; a touchable area of an interactive element such as a button or an input field. The bigger the hit area, the better for the user.
• HMS - Huawei Mobile Services.
• Homebrew - is a free and open-source software package management system that simplifies the installation of software on Apple's operating system (macOS).
• Hotfix - is a critical bug fix that needs to go live before the next scheduled release date.
• Hover - (or hover state) communicates when a user has placed a cursor above an interactive element.
• HT (Half time) - four working hours per day.
• HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) - a protocol or order and syntax for presenting information and is used for transferring data over a network. If the website you are connected to is using HTTP, your requests and responses are not encrypted and someone willing to (and knows how) can see your data.
• HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) - is using technology for encrypting (making plaintext series of random characters) the data and authenticating both parties (verifying that the person or machine is who they claim to be).

I

• Infinum Extra - an internal system for extending praise. If you want to praise someone for a good job or a good deed, give him or her an Extra.
• Infinum HageArr - Information about the amount of your budget, company structure, and 360 reviews lives here.
• Infinum ID - a single sign-on system for all Infinum services.
• Infinum Inventory - a place where you can check all equipment that you have claimed, replaced, or returned.
• Infinum Polyglot - an in-house platform for managing translations.
• Infinum Secret - use to send sensitive information to others.
• Infinum TryOutApps - a platform for releasing mobile apps. This is another Infinum product developed internally.
• Instruments (iOS) - tool for inspecting the performance of your app (and much more). Requires Xcode.
• Input field - text fields that allow user input. Input can be free text, a number stepper, etc.
• Introspect (Android) - an app used to find all information about your Android device (similar to Inware).
• Invision - a web interface for browsing design files and prototypes.
• Inware (Android) - an app that allows you to know your device in detail. You can find information about your device's hardware and software.
• IoT (Internet of Things) - is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. For example, smart home systems and devices.
• ISP - Internet service provider.

J

• Java vs Javascript - Java is mostly used for developing desktop and mobile applications and JavaScript for web applications. Java also requires developers to use classes (which are reusable templates) for everything and has a more rigid syntax where after you declare a variable as a specific type of data, you can’t later change it by assigning a different type of data. JavaScript can be used more loosely and action like this is allowed. It is used for frontend development but with the recent appearance of the Node.js framework, it is possible to use it for the backend also.
• Jenkins - an open-source automation server. It helps automate the parts of software development related to building, testing, and deploying, facilitating continuous integration and continuous delivery.
• Jira - a management tool for all kinds of use cases, from requirements and test case management to agile software development.
• JSONView - a Google Chrome extension that will prettify your JSONs when viewing them in Chrome.

K

• KPI (Key performance indicator) - a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives (goals).

L

• Language - a basic set of operations and functions, they are like ingredients (raw materials) with which you can make programs (food) with the option of using recipes (frameworks).
• Library - a software library generally consists of pre-written code, classes, procedures, scripts, configuration data, and more. Typically, a developer might manually add a software library to a program to achieve more functionality or to automate a process without writing code for it.
• Lockito - a tool for mocking your GPS location.
• Logcat (Android) - a command-line tool that dumps a log of system messages, including stack traces when the device throws an error and messages that you have written from your app with the Log class.
• Loggie - is an in-house tool used for inspecting network traffic in iOS apps. Once the app is running and in the foreground, you can access it by shaking the phone.

M

• macOS - primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers.
• Mandatory update - is needed when a user uses an app that is well overdue for an update (e.g. when a big security update comes to the app or the backend of the app, the user has to update the app to continue using it).
• Margin - it describes the spacing between elements on a (web)page
• Markdown Viewer - helps you view Markdown files in Chrome.
• Ministry of Testing - is a global software testing community (lectures live here).
• MobSF - a tool for doing a basic automated penetration test on a mobile app.
• Modal - in user interface design for computer applications, a modal window is a graphical control element subordinate to an application's main window. It creates a mode that disables the main window but keeps it visible, with the modal window as a child window in front of it. Users must interact with the modal window before they can return to the parent application.
• Monosnap - for taking screenshots on Mac.
• MVP - minimum viable product. The minimum viable product is the most pared-down version of a product that can be released to market (a product with its essential features). When adopting an MVP approach, developers will first focus on the core features and functions that are crucial.

N

• Nexus Root Toolkit - used for changing ROMs on Nexus devices.

O

• OKR (Objectives and key results) - a goal-setting framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes. The intention is to provide teams with visibility of goals with the intention to align and focus effort.
• Optional update - is used when the app is still usable, but we wish to notify the user that there is a newer, better version. The user can decline the update and continue using the app normally.

P

• Padding - a page element's padding area is the space between its content and its border
• Performance testing - a testing measure that evaluates the speed, responsiveness, and stability of a computer, network, software program, or device under a workload.
• PhraseExpress - for pasting templates by entering a simple piece of text. E.g. enter "bugtemplate" and get an entire bug report template that will replace that entered string so you never have to type out the entire thing again.
• Phased release (iOS) - a phased release, or rollout, is a process where an app update is released to customers in stages instead of all at once
• pidcat (Android) - an Android app logging script (alternative to Logcat).
• PM (Project Manager) - a member of the project team who has the responsibility of communicating with the client, following the budget and deadlines, and keeping track of work delivered on the project.
• PoC (Proof of Concept) - realization of a certain idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility or a demonstration with the goal of verifying that some concept or proposal has a great potential in the real world.
• POM (Page Object Model) - a design pattern in Selenium that creates an object repository for storing all web elements.
• Postman - an API platform for building, using, and testing APIs
• PR (Pull Request) - pull requests are part of the usual development process. They let you tell others about changes you've pushed to a branch in a repository on GitHub. Once a pull request is opened, you can discuss and review the potential changes with collaborators and add follow-up commits before your changes are merged into the main branch.
• Pipeline - e.g. "something being in the pipeline", the thing to which they are referring is not here yet but should be sometime in the future (feature, project…)
• Prince of Versions - an in-house lib we use on mobile platforms that enables us to easily notify users of optional and mandatory updates to their app.
• Product backlog - The product owner is responsible for managing a prioritized list known as the product backlog. The product backlog might contain new features, changes to existing features, defects, technical improvements, etc. The product owner collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to gather and define the product backlog items.
• Product owner - responsible for deciding which features and functionality to build and the order in which to build them.
• Production - a final environment that companies launch to the users.
• Productive - main application for managing all company processes.
• Proxy server - a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource.
• Proxyman - it enables you to capture, inspect, and manipulate HTTP(s) requests/responses. It's like Charles, but a bit fancier.
• Puppeteer - a library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium browsers over the DevTools Protocol.
• PyCharm - an integrated development environment used in computer programming, specifically for the Python language.
• Python - an interpreted high-level general-purpose programming language.

Q

• QA - quality assurance :)
• QAMA - our in-house QA Mobile Automation framework.
• QAWA - our in-house QA Web Automation framework.

R

• Refactoring - in computer programming and software design, code refactoring is the process of restructuring existing computer code — changing the factoring — without changing its external behavior. Refactoring is intended to improve the design, structure, and/or implementation of the software (its non-functional attributes), while preserving its functionality. Usually, older projects need code refactoring.
• Regression Testing - is much more thorough than smoke testing. Regression testing involves checking every possible aspect of the pre-existing app features after a new feature or bug fix is deployed. This is to make sure that the code updates didn't break any other area of the software. Or in other words - a full test of the app.
• Release - A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial generation of a new or upgraded application.
• Release candidate - is a version that is ready to be released to the public, assuming no major bugs are found during testing.
• ResponsivelyApp - a tool for parallel browser testing on several physical devices.
• Rollout - an informal business term for the introduction and integration of a new product or service to the market. A rollout often refers to a significant product release, which is frequently accompanied by a strong marketing campaign, to generate consumer interest.

S

• Scope - the total amount of web or mobile features included in the project. Each scope has its duration and budget.
• Scrcpy (Android) - a free and open-source screen mirroring application that allows control of an Android device from a Windows, macOS, or Linux desktop computer.
• screencastify - a Chrome extension for easily creating tab screencasts.
• Scrum - A way of working that consists of certain rules, methodologies, roles, metrics, artifacts, and a way of doing things to support an “Agile” mindset. The software development process is divided into small fixed chunks - Sprints (1 week - 1 month), the whole team is attending Scrum “ceremonies” like Daily stand-up, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, Sprint planning, and Backlog refinement. Scrum and agile are often thought to be the same thing. They're not. Agile is a set of principles and scrum is a framework for getting things done.
• Scrum master - ensures the team lives agile values and principles and follows the processes and practices that the team agreed they would use.
• SDK (Software development kit) - a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They ease the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger, and perhaps a software framework. To create applications with advanced functionalities such as push notifications, photopay, OCR scanning, etc.; most application software developers use specific software development kits.
• Selenium - probably the most popular web automation framework built on top of WebDriver (as many others are).
• Send Anywhere - an app used to send files between mobile and desktop devices.
• Shortcuts (iOS) - is a visual scripting application developed by Apple; use it for creating and executing scripts on your iOS device.
• Simplenote - for taking notes.
• Skitch - for taking screenshots on your Mac.
• Slack - business communication platform.
• Smoke Testing - is one of the quickest and most basic forms of testing. It involves doing a simple test of major features, often right before a release. The purpose is to see if anything "catches fire", so to speak.
• Spectacle - for managing your app windows on Mac.
• Sprint backlog - the collection of tasks defined on the sprint planning meeting, along with their associated product backlog items, forms a second backlog called the sprint backlog.
• Sprint planning - performed by the product owner, development team, and Scrum master. The goal is to: determine the most important items of the product backlog to build in the next sprint, break down each targeted feature into a set of tasks, set a sprint goal - what the upcoming sprint is supposed to achieve.
• Sprint retrospective - a team meeting held after the sprint review. It is an "improvement" meeting attended by all – the product owner, Scrum master, development team members, QA, and only optionally with the stakeholders.
• Sprint review - a meeting held (mostly) on the last day of the sprint in which the team presents the results of the sprint to the stakeholders.
• Staging - web environment for testing and content before the official production release.
• Stakeholders - stakeholders are the purpose for which a product or service is created in the first place. They have certain requirements that need to be fulfilled. It is the responsibility of the Scrum team to fulfill the given requirements of the stakeholders and satisfy them.
• Stetho (Android) - is used for examining network traffic, layout, etc. in Android apps via Chrome.
• Story point - a metric used in agile project management and development to estimate the difficulty of implementing a given user story.
• Staged rollout (Android) - a method of updating an application while reaching only a certain percentage of users (in stages). It enables us to release a single product version very slowly - over a certain period of time (counterpart of "Phased rollout").

T

• TAE - Test Automation Engineers.
• Technical debt - Technical debt is created when developers prioritize speedy delivery (and thus make messy/buggy code) over code that is written clean. Linked to Refactoring of code.
• Test cases (TC) - are requirements with steps for testing whether a given part of the app or site is working properly.
• Test environment - environment for QA testing.
• Test suite - a set of test cases. For example, you might have test cases for the registration section, the homepage, add to cart flow, etc. A test suite is a spreadsheet consisting of all of these different test cases.
• TestFlight - Apple's online service for over-the-air installation and testing of mobile applications.
• TestRail - a web-based test case management tool.
• Todoist - an app for managing your own tasks.
• Tunnelbear - a VPN service.

U

• UAT (User Acceptance Testing) - high-level tests to verify the completeness of a user story or stories. UAT can be done during any sprint/iteration.
• Udemy - open online course provider.
• Use case - a use case is a written description of how users will perform tasks on your website or app. It outlines, from a user's point of view, a system's behavior as it responds to a request. Each use case is represented as a sequence of simple steps, beginning with a user's goal and ending when that goal is fulfilled.
• User stories - an informal, general explanation of a software feature written from the perspective of the end user or customer.
• UI (User interface) - the series of screens, pages, and visual elements (like buttons and icons) that enable a user to interact with a product or service.
• UT (Usability Testing) - often refers to usability testing.
• UX (User Experience) - the process design teams use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.

V

• Velocity - A key metric in the Agile approach that measures the amount of work that the team has done during one sprint.
• Velocity chart - a graphic representation of the amount of value delivered in each sprint.
• VPN (Virtual Private Network) - Secure and private way for connecting to the Internet by encrypting the user’s data and IP address.

W

• White-label apps - a white label app is a generic application built by a company to resell it to another business that, in turn, can rebrand it as their own.
• WiFi throttling - intentionally slowing an internet service speed that was provided by ISP.
• WordPress - an open-source Content Management System (CMS), often used as a blog publishing application, supported by PHP and MySQL.

X

• XPath - stands for XML Path Language
• Xray for Jira - a test management tool that provides the structure to organize, plan, and report with accuracy on the progress of testing as well as the readiness to deploy

Z

• Zeplin - a web interface for browsing designs made in Sketch

1

• 1on1 - a meeting where your team lead will sit down with you every week on any particular day for a chat about your progress, projects, issues, etc.
• 1password - a password manager that provides a place for users to store various passwords (your passwords should live here).