PaaS

Platform As A Service

Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app

packet sniffing

A packet analyzer (also known as a packet sniffer) is a computer program or piece of computer hardware (such as a packet capture appliance) that can intercept and log traffic that passes over a digital network or part of a network. Packet capture is the process of intercepting and logging traffic. As data streams flow across the network, the sniffer captures each packet and, if needed, decodes the packet's raw data, showing the values of various fields in the packet, and analyzes its content according to the appropriate RFC or other specifications.
 
A packet analyzer used for intercepting traffic on wireless networks is known as a wireless analyzer or WiFi analyzer. A packet analyzer can also be referred to as a network analyzer or protocol analyzer though these terms also have other meanings.
 
Capabilities
On wired shared medias networks, such as Ethernet, Token Ring, and FDDI networks, depending on the network structure (hub or switch), it may be possible to capture all traffic on the network from a single machine on the network. On modern networks, traffic can be captured using a network switch with a so-called monitoring port that mirrors all packets that pass through designated ports of the switch. A network tap is an even more reliable solution than to use a monitoring port, since taps are less likely to drop packets during high traffic load.
 
On wireless LANs, traffic can be captured on one channel at a time, or by using multiple adapters, on several channels simultaneously.
 
On wired broadcast and wireless LANs, to capture unicast traffic between other machines, the network adapter capturing the traffic must be in promiscuous mode. On wireless LANs, even if the adapter is in promiscuous mode, packets not for the service set the adapter is configured for are usually ignored. To see those packets, the adapter must be in monitor mode. No special provisions are required to capture multicast traffic to a multicast group the packet analyzer is already monitoring, or broadcast traffic.
 
When traffic is captured, either the entire contents of packets are recorded, or just the headers are recorded. Recording just headers reduces storage requirements, and avoids some legal issues, yet often provides sufficient information to diagnose problems.
 
Captured information is decoded from raw digital form into a human-readable format that lets users easily review exchanged information. Protocol analyzers vary in their abilities to display and analyze data.
 
Some protocol analyzers can also generate traffic and thus act as the reference device. These can act as protocol testers. Such testers generate protocol-correct traffic for functional testing, and may also have the ability to deliberately introduce errors to test the DUT's ability to handle errors.
 
Protocol analyzers can also be hardware-based, either in probe format or, as is increasingly common, combined with a disk array. These devices record packets (or a slice of the packet) to a disk array. This allows historical forensic analysis of packets without users having to recreate any fault.

Packet Switched

Packet switching is a method of grouping data which is transmitted over a digital network into packets which are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the packet to its destination where the payload is extracted and used by application software. Packet switching is the primary basis for data communications in computer networks worldwide.
 

 

PAF

Postal Address File

Royal Mail Postal Address File data

Pair Programming

Pair programming consists of two programmers sharing a single workstation (one screen, keyboard and mouse among the pair).

PAP

Password Authentication Protocol

Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) is a password-based authentication protocol used by Point to Point Protocol (PPP) to validate users. Almost all network operating system remote servers support PAP.
 
PAP is considered a weak authentication scheme (weak schemes are simple and have lighter computational overhead but are much more vulnerable to attack; while weak schemes may have limited application in some constrained environments, they are avoided in general). Among PAP's deficiencies is the fact that it transmits unencrypted passwords over the network. PAP is therefore used only as a last resort when the remote server does not support a stronger scheme such as CHAP or EAP
 

 

Parametric Estimation

Estimation using an algorithmic model, normally as part of a software tool. Models work by taking input factors and calculating outputs with algorithms based on historical data.

Pascal

Pascal is an imperative and procedural programming language, which Niklaus Wirth designed in 1968–69 and published in 1970, as a small, efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring. It is named in honor of the French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal.
 
Pascal was developed on the pattern of the ALGOL 60 language. Wirth had already developed several improvements to this language as part of the ALGOL X proposals, but these were not accepted and Pascal was developed separately and released in 1970. A derivative known as Object Pascal designed for object-oriented programming was developed in 1985; this was used by Apple Computer and Borland in the late 1980s and later developed into Delphi on the Microsoft Windows platform. Extensions to the Pascal concepts led to the Pascal-like languages Modula-2 and Oberon

Pattern

CxPattern

CxOne pattern material type. A predefined model or template used to create an artifact or accomplish a goal. See CxOneOverview for description.

PCM

Pulse-code modulation

Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amplitude of the analog signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, and each sample is quantized to the nearest value within a range of digital steps.
 
Linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) is a specific type of PCM where the quantization levels are linearly uniform. This is in contrast to PCM encodings where quantization levels vary as a function of amplitude (as with the A-law algorithm or the μ-law algorithm). Though PCM is a more general term, it is often used to describe data encoded as LPCM.
 
A PCM stream has two basic properties that determine the stream's fidelity to the original analog signal: the sampling rate, which is the number of times per second that samples are taken; and the bit depth, which determines the number of possible digital values that can be used to represent each sample.

PCP

Primary Connection Point

Part of the line plant, in the form of a metal cabinet at the roadside, that enables flexibility between the main cables from the exchange and the smaller cables to individual streets or premises, also known as a Cabinet, or Cab" "Primary Cross-connection Point - this is the local street cabinet in which cables extending out to local distribution points are aggregated and connected to larger copper and fibre optic cables to move the voice and data signals to and from the local exchange
 
 

 

PCRF

Policy and Charging Rules Function

Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is the software node designated in real-time to determine policy rules in a multimedia network. As a policy tool, the PCRF plays a central role in next-generation networks. Unlike earlier policy engines that were added onto an existing network to enforce policy, the PCRF is a software component that operates at the network core and accesses subscriber databases and other specialized functions, such as a charging system, in a centralized manner. Because it operates in real time, the PCRF has an increased strategic significance and broader potential role than traditional policy engines. This has led to a proliferation of PCRF products since 2008.
 
The PCRF is the part of the network architecture that aggregates information to and from the network, operational support systems, and other sources (such as portals) in real time, supporting the creation of rules and then automatically making policy decisions for each subscriber active on the network. Such a network might offer multiple services, quality of service (QoS) levels, and charging rules. PCRF can provide a network agnostic solution (wire line and wireless) and can also enable multi-dimensional approach which helps in creating a lucrative and innovative platform for operators. PCRF can also be integrated with different platforms like billing, rating, charging, and subscriber database or can also be deployed as a standalone entity.
 
PCRF plays a key role in VoLTE as a mediator of network resources for the IP Multimedia Systems network for establishing the calls and allocating the requested bandwidth to the call bearer with configured attributes.

PCS

Physical Coding Sub-layer

The Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) is a networking protocol sublayer in the Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet standards. It resides at the top of the physical layer (PHY), and provides an interface between the Physical Medium Attachment (PMA) sublayer and the Media Independent Interface (MII). It is responsible for data encoding and decoding, scrambling and descrambling, alignment marker insertion and removal, block and symbol redistribution, and lane block synchronization and deskew.

PDCP

Packet Data Convergence Protocol

PDCP is an abbreviation for Packet Data Convergence Protocol. This protocol is specified by 3GPP in TS 25.323 for UMTS, TS 36.323 for LTE and TS 38.323 for 5G New Radio [NR). The PDCP is located in the Radio Protocol Stack in the UMTS/LTE/5G Air interface on top of the RLC layer.
 
PDCP provides its services to the RRC and user plane upper layers, e.g. IP at the UE or to the relay at the base station.

PDH

plesiochronous digital hierarchy

The plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH) is a technology used in telecommunications networks to transport large quantities of data over digital transport equipment such as fibre optic and microwave radio systems. The term plesiochronous is derived from Greek plēsios, meaning near, and chronos, time, and refers to the fact that PDH networks run in a state where different parts of the network are nearly, but not quite perfectly, synchronized.
 
Backbone transport networks replaced PDH networks with synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) or synchronous optical networking (SONET) equipment over the ten years ending around the turn of the millennium (2000), whose floating payloads relaxed the more stringent timing requirements of PDH network technology.
 
PDH allows transmission of data streams that are nominally running at the same rate, but allowing some variation on the speed around a nominal rate. By analogy, any two watches are nominally running at the same rate, clocking up 60 seconds every minute. However, there is no link between watches to guarantee that they run at exactly the same rate, and it is highly likely that one is running slightly faster than the other.

PDU

Protocol Data Unit

In telecommunications, a protocol data unit (PDU) is information that is transmitted as a single unit among peer entities of a computer network. A PDU may contain user data or control information and network addressing. In layered architectures of communication protocol stacks, each layer implements protocols tailored to the specific type or mode of data exchange, or network function of the layer. For example, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) implements a connection-oriented transfer mode, and the PDU of this protocol is called a segment, while the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) uses datagrams as protocol data unit for connection-less transfer. A layer lower in the Internet Protocol Suite, at the Internet Layer, the PDU is called a packet, irrespective of its payload type.

 

PEAP

Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol

The Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol, also known as Protected EAP or simply PEAP, is a protocol that encapsulates the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) within an encrypted and authenticated Transport Layer Security (TLS) tunnel. The purpose was to correct deficiencies in EAP; EAP assumed a protected communication channel, such as that provided by physical security, so facilities for protection of the EAP conversation were not provided.
 
PEAP was jointly developed by Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and RSA Security. PEAPv0 was the version included with Microsoft Windows XP and was nominally defined in draft-kamath-pppext-peapv0-00. PEAPv1 and PEAPv2 were defined in different versions of draft-josefsson-pppext-eap-tls-eap. PEAPv1 was defined in draft-josefsson-pppext-eap-tls-eap-00 through draft-josefsson-pppext-eap-tls-eap-05, and PEAPv2 was defined in versions beginning with draft-josefsson-pppext-eap-tls-eap-06.
 
The protocol only specifies chaining multiple EAP mechanisms and not any specific method. However, use of the EAP-MSCHAPv2 and EAP-GTC methods are the most commonly supported

 

peer review

a process used for checking the work performed by one's equals (peers) to ensure it meets specific criteria.

Pen testing

Penetration Testing

A penetration test, colloquially known as a pen test, is an authorized simulated attack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system. The test is performed to identify both weaknesses (also referred to as vulnerabilities), including the potential for unauthorized parties to gain access to the system's features and data, as well as strengths, enabling a full risk assessment to be completed.
 
The process typically identifies the target systems and a particular goal—then reviews available information and undertakes various means to attain the goal. A penetration test target may be a white box (which provides background and system information) or black box (which provides only basic or no information except the company name). A penetration test can help determine whether a system is vulnerable to attack if the defenses were sufficient, and which defenses (if any) the test defeated.
 
Security issues that the penetration test uncovers should be reported to the system owner. Penetration test reports may also assess potential impacts to the organization and suggest countermeasures to reduce risk.
 
The goals of a penetration test vary depending on the type of approved activity for any given engagement with the primary goal focused on finding vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a nefarious actor and informing the client of those vulnerabilities along with recommended mitigation strategies.
 
Penetration tests are a component of a full security audit. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requires penetration testing on a regular schedule, and after system changes.
 
Flaw hypothesis methodology is a systems analysis and penetration prediction technique where a list of hypothesized flaws in a software system are compiled through analysis of the specifications and documentation for the system. The list of hypothesized flaws is then prioritized on the basis of the estimated probability that a flaw actually exists, and on the ease of exploiting it to the extent of control or compromise. The prioritized list is used to direct the actual testing of the system.

PER

Packed Encoding Rules

Packed Encoding Rules (PER) are ASN.1 encoding rules for producing a compact transfer syntax for data structures described in ASN.1, defined in 1994.
 
This Recommendation or International Standard describes a set of encoding rules that can be applied to values of all ASN.1 types to achieve a much more compact representation than that achieved by the BER and its derivatives (described in ITU-T Rec. X.690 ISO/IEC 8825-1).
 
It uses additional information, such as the lower and upper limits for numeric values, from the ASN.1 specification to represent the data units using the minimum number of bits. The compactness requires that the decoder knows the complete abstract syntax of the data structure to be decoded, however.
 
There are two variations of packed encoding rules: unaligned and aligned. With the unaligned encoding, the bits are packed with no regard for octet (byte) boundaries. With aligned encoding, certain types of data structures are aligned on octet boundaries, meaning there may be some number of wasted padding bits. Unaligned encoding uses the least number of bits, but presumably at some cost in processing time.

Performance

May be used to describe the combination of feature and quality a system has (or that a project delivers).
Also used in relation to the level of support for various non-functional system requirements such as speed, resource usage, reliability, availability, etc.

Perl

Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages, Perl 5 and Perl 6.
 
Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions. Perl 6, which began as a redesign of Perl 5 in 2000, eventually evolved into a separate language. Both languages continue to be developed independently by different development teams and liberally borrow ideas from one another.
 
The Perl languages borrow features from other programming languages including C, shell script (sh), AWK, and sed; Wall also alludes to Basic and Lisp in the introduction to Learning Perl (Schwartz & Christiansen) and so on. They provide text processing facilities without the arbitrary data-length limits of many contemporary Unix commandline tools, facilitating manipulation of text files. Perl 5 gained widespread popularity in the late 1990s as a CGI scripting language, in part due to its then unsurpassed regular expression and string parsing abilities.

Personas

Personas are synthetic biographies of fictitious users of the future product.

Perspective

During an inspection, an assigned focus used to increase the likelihood that each inspector will find unique issues or to focus attention an particular aspects of an artifact.

PERT chart

The program (or project) evaluation and review technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical tool, used in project management, which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project.
 
First developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it is commonly used in conjunction with the critical path method (CPM).
 

 

PGP

Pretty Good Privacy

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications. Phil Zimmermann developed PGP in 1991.
 
PGP and similar software follow the OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880) for encrypting and decrypting data.
 

 

PGW

Packet Data Network Gateway

The PDN Gateway provides connectivity from the UE to external packet data networks by being the point of exit and entry of traffic for the UE. A UE may have simultaneous connectivity with more than one PGW for accessing multiple PDNs. The PGW performs policy enforcement, packet filtering for each user, charging support, lawful interception and packet screening. Another key role of the PGW is to act as the anchor for mobility between 3GPP and non-3GPP technologies such as WiMAX and 3GPP2 (CDMA 1X and EvDO).

Phase

A translation of a group of activities onto a portion of a lifecycle or a period of time defined by a schedule. Often used in conjunction with denoting a major transition in project activities or lifecycle processes.
Sometimes used as a synonym for stage. Sometimes used (incorrectly) as a synonym for milestone.

Phased Estimation

The practice of creating estimates throughout a project's lifecycle, utilizing groups of estimation techniques optimized for each lifecycle phase.

PHP

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (or simply PHP) is a server-side scripting language designed for Web development, but also used as a general-purpose programming language. It was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group.[6] PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.
 
PHP code may be embedded into HTML code, or it can be used in combination with various web template systems, web content management systems, and web frameworks. PHP code is usually processed by a PHP interpreter implemented as a module in the web server or as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. The web server combines the results of the interpreted and executed PHP code, which may be any type of data, including images, with the generated web page. PHP code may also be executed with a command-line interface (CLI) and can be used to implement standalone graphical applications.
 
The standard PHP interpreter, powered by the Zend Engine, is free software released under the PHP License. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on almost every operating system and platform, free of charge.
 
The PHP language evolved without a written formal specification or standard until 2014, with the original implementation acting as the de facto standard which other implementations aimed to follow. Since 2014 work has gone on to create a formal PHP specification.

Planning and Tracking Lead

PTL

Directs overall flow of technical work on the project. Directly responsible for project planning and overseeing the execution of work breakdown, estimation, scheduling, and tracking.

Planning Poker

An approach to estimation used by Agile teams. Each team member "plays" a card bearing a numerical value corresponding to a point estimation for a user story.

PLL

Phase Locked Loop

A phase-locked loop or phase lock loop abbreviated as PLL is a control system that generates an output signal whose phase is related to the phase of an input signal. There are several different types; the simplest is an electronic circuit consisting of a variable frequency oscillator and a phase detector in a feedback loop. The oscillator generates a periodic signal, and the phase detector compares the phase of that signal with the phase of the input periodic signal, adjusting the oscillator to keep the phases matched.
 
Keeping the input and output phase in lock step also implies keeping the input and output frequencies the same. Consequently, in addition to synchronizing signals, a phase-locked loop can track an input frequency, or it can generate a frequency that is a multiple of the input frequency. These properties are used for computer clock synchronization, demodulation, and frequency synthesis.
 
Phase-locked loops are widely employed in radio, telecommunications, computers and other electronic applications. They can be used to demodulate a signal, recover a signal from a noisy communication channel, generate a stable frequency at multiples of an input frequency (frequency synthesis), or distribute precisely timed clock pulses in digital logic circuits such as microprocessors. Since a single integrated circuit can provide a complete phase-locked-loop building block, the technique is widely used in modern electronic devices, with output frequencies from a fraction of a hertz up to many gigahertz.

PNT

Pointer data

OSNI Pointer data

Points

(estimates in) Agile teams generally prefer to express estimates in units other than the time-honored "man-hours." Possibly the most widespread unit is "story points."

polymorphism

from the Greek meaning "having multiple forms," the characteristic of being able to assign a different meaning or usage to something in different contexts - specifically, to allow an entity such as a variable, a function, or an object to have more than one form.

POP

Point Of Presence

A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communicating entities.

 

portability

a characteristic attributed to a computer program if it can be used in an operating systems other than the one in which it was created without requiring major rework.

POSIX

The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines the application programming interface (API), along with command line shells and utility interfaces, for software compatibility with variants of Unix and other operating systems.

Postmortem

A phase at the end of a software project during which project team members evaluate the project and learn lessons that can be applied to the next project. "Postmortem" also refers to the report created during the postmortem phase.

POTS

Plain Old Telephone Service or
Plain Ordinary Telephone Service

POTS is a retronym for voice-grade telephone service employing analog signal transmission over copper loops
See FXO & FXS
 

 

PPP

Point-to-Point Protocol

In computer networking, Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is a data link layer (layer 2) communications protocol used to establish a direct connection between two nodes. It connects two routers directly without any host or any other networking device in between. It can provide connection authentication, transmission encryption,[1] and compression.
 
PPP is used over many types of physical networks including serial cable, phone line, trunk line, cellular telephone, specialized radio links, and fiber optic links such as SONET. Internet service providers (ISPs) have used PPP for customer dial-up access to the Internet, since IP packets cannot be transmitted over a modem line on their own, without some data link protocol.
 
Two derivatives of PPP, Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) and Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM (PPPoA), are used most commonly by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to establish a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Internet service connection with customers.

PPPoE

PPP over Ethernet

The Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) is a network protocol for encapsulating PPP frames inside Ethernet frames. It appeared in 1999, in the context of the boom of DSL as the solution for tunneling packets over the DSL connection to the ISP's IP network, and from there to the rest of the Internet. A 2005 networking book noted that "Most DSL providers use PPPoE, which provides authentication, encryption, and compression." Typical use of PPPoE involves leveraging the PPP facilities for authenticating the user with a username and password, predominately via the PAP protocol and less often via CHAP.

PPTP

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is an obsolete method for implementing virtual private networks, with many known security issues. PPTP uses a TCP control channel and a Generic Routing Encapsulation tunnel to encapsulate PPP packets.
 
The PPTP specification does not describe encryption or authentication features and relies on the Point-to-Point Protocol being tunneled to implement security functionality. However, the most common PPTP implementation shipping with the Microsoft Windows product families implements various levels of authentication and encryption natively as standard features of the Windows PPTP stack. The intended use of this protocol is to provide security levels and remote access levels comparable with typical VPN products.

 

Preemption

In computing, preemption is the act of temporarily interrupting a task being carried out by a computer system, without requiring its cooperation, and with the intention of resuming the task at a later time. Such changes of the executed task are known as context switches. It is normally carried out by a privileged task or part of the system known as a preemptive scheduler, which has the power to preempt, or interrupt, and later resume, other tasks in the system.

Preview

An engineering discussion where materials have been prepared ahead of time for review and discussion in a meeting. The goal is to probe proposed solution to detect defects and suggest alternatives.
Previews differ from reviews in that they are solution oriented rather than detection oriented.

PRINCE2

a project management methodology developed by the government of the United Kingdom that makes use of the best proven practices from a variety of industries and backgrounds.

Process

A standard method for performing an activity or task.
Processes may or may not be documented; a defined process implies that it is documented. Processes are often supported by materials, tools, conventions, and other infrastructure. The terms process may also refer to the execution of the activities and tasks that make up the process, e.g., "the outcome of the build process".

Process Flow

A process model which defines the materials, structure, techniques, actions, events, and other elements necessary to implement a lifecycle, workflow, or methodology.

Product Owner

The product owner is a role created by the Scrum Framework responsible for making sure the team delivers the desired outcome.

Product Release

A release that is produced for distribution and/or deployment to end users.

programming language

A programming language is a formal language which comprises a set of instructions used to produce various kinds of output. Programming languages are used to create programs that implement specific algorithms.

 

 

Programming paradigm

Programming paradigms are a way to classify programming languages based on their features. Languages can be classified into multiple paradigms.
 
Some paradigms are concerned mainly with implications for the execution model of the language, such as allowing side effects, or whether the sequence of operations is defined by the execution model. Other paradigms are concerned mainly with the way that code is organized, such as grouping a code into units along with the state that is modified by the code. Yet others are concerned mainly with the style of syntax and grammar.
 
Common programming paradigms include:
 

• imperative which allows side effects,
  

  • object-oriented which groups code together with the state the code modifies,

  • procedural which groups code into functions,

• declarative which does not state the order in which operations execute,
  

  • functional which disallows side effects,

  • logic which has a particular style of execution model coupled to a particular style of syntax and grammar, and

• symbolic programming which has a particular style of syntax and grammar.
  
   
  For example, languages that fall into the imperative paradigm have two main features: they state the order in which operations occur, with constructs that explicitly control that order, and they allow side effects, in which state can be modified at one point in time, within one unit of code, and then later read at a different point in time inside a different unit of code. The communication between the units of code is not explicit. Meanwhile, in object-oriented programming, code is organized into objects that contain state that is only modified by the code that is part of the object. Most object-oriented languages are also imperative languages. In contrast, languages that fit the declarative paradigm do not state the order in which to execute operations. Instead, they supply a number of operations that are available in the system, along with the conditions under which each is allowed to execute. The implementation of the language's execution model tracks which operations are free to execute and chooses the order on its own. More at Comparison of multi-paradigm programming languages.
  

  

  
   
   

Progressive Elaboration

PMBOK term for iteratively defining a project's requirements, moving from the general to the specific as the project is underway. Most software lifecycles and projects employ some degree of progressive elaboration. Relates to project headlights and rolling wave planning.

Project

A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Normally used with CxOne to refer to a project creating a software system.

Project Build

PB

Build performed as part of a shared project build process, usually in a dedicated build environment. Compare to local build.

Project Business Manager

PBM

Responsible for successful business outcome of the project. In charge of project staffing, acquiring resources for the project, personnel issues, top-level work assignments, and client interaction. Is the top decision maker on the project, but normally defers technical decisions to the appropriate technical lead.

Project Charter

Used to incept and define a project. Documents the objectives, business case, risks and assets, resources, and constraints of a project.

Project Chartering

A high-level summary of the project's key success factors displayed on one wall of the team room as a flipchart-sized sheet of paper.

Project Estimate

An estimate that characterizes work on an entire project or large portion of a project. Project estimates are often the result of significant effort to predict a large phase of a project, and utilize several different techniques. Compare to task estimate.

Project Headlights

The concept that there is a sliding window of time that a project's plan can be clearly defined with confidence. Beyond this "lighted" area, project planning is less precise and entails more uncertainty. Derives from the phrase "don't drive beyond your headlights".

Project History

Summarizes the significant information and statistics about an entire project.

Project Log

Describes significant information and statistics about each phase of a project.

Project Management

PM

The act of managing a project, including planning, tracking, control, and reporting activities.

Project Management Body of Knowledge

PMBOK

PMI developed definition of the essential knowledge related to the science and discipline of project management.

Project Management Institute

PMI

Professional organization for project managers. Developers of the PMBOK.
www.pmi.org

Project Manager

PM

Often used as synonym for project business manager, especially when one person is playing both project business manager and planning and tracking lead roles. Also used to refer generically to an individual playing a management role on a project.

Project Plan

PP

The controlling document for a project that defines how the project will be executed.

Project Reviewer

Performs reviews and audits on projects using personnel who are not participating on the project. Ensures processes are being followed and risks are being identified and managed.

Project Sponsor

Individual or entity responsible for sponsoring a project. Synonym for authority in a project charter. Initiates and staffs a project, directly oversees the project business manager. Ensures that the project is meeting the technical and business needs of external and internal stakeholders.

pseudocode

a detailed yet readable description of what a computer program or algorithm must do, expressed in a formally-styled natural language rather than in a programming language.

PSTN

Public Switched Telephone Network

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators, providing infrastructure and services for public telecommunication.
The PSTN consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all interconnected by switching centers, thus allowing most telephones to communicate with each other.
Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital in its core network and includes mobile and other networks, as well as fixed telephones

 

PTP

Precision Time Protocol

The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a protocol used to synchronize clocks throughout a computer network. On a local area network, it achieves clock accuracy in the sub-microsecond range, making it suitable for measurement and control systems.
 
PTP was originally defined in the IEEE 1588-2002 standard, officially entitled "Standard for a Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems" and published in 2002. In 2008, IEEE 1588-2008 was released as a revised standard; also known as PTP Version 2, it improves accuracy, precision and robustness but is not backward compatible with the original 2002 version.
 
"IEEE 1588 is designed to fill a niche not well served by either of the two dominant protocols, NTP and GPS. IEEE 1588 is designed for local systems requiring accuracies beyond those attainable using NTP. It is also designed for applications that cannot bear the cost of a GPS receiver at each node, or for which GPS signals are inaccessible."

PTT

Push-to-talk

Push-to-talk (PTT), also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of having conversations or talking on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode.

PVC

Permanent Virtual Circuit

A permanent virtual circuit (PVC) is a virtual circuit established for repeated/continuous use between the same DTE. In a PVC, the long-term association is identical to the data transfer phase of a virtual call. Permanent virtual circuits eliminate the need for repeated call set-up and clearing. Frame relay is typically used to provide PVCs.

PW

PseudoWire

A pseudowire (or pseudo-wire) is an emulation of a point-to-point connection over a packet-switching network

 

PWFQ

Priority-based Weighted Fair Queueing

See WFQ

Python (2.x & 3.x)

Python is an interpreted high-level programming language for general-purpose programming. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python has a design philosophy that emphasizes code readability, notably using significant whitespace. It provides constructs that enable clear programming on both small and large scales. In July 2018, the creator Van Rossum stepped down as the leader in the language community after 30 years.
 
Python features a dynamic type system and automatic memory management. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, imperative, functional and procedural, and has a large and comprehensive standard library
 
Python 2.0 was released on 16 October 2000 and had many major new features, including a cycle-detecting garbage collector and support for Unicode. With this release, the development process became more transparent and community-backed.
 
Python 3.0 (initially called Python 3000 or py3k) was released on 3 December 2008 after a long testing period. It is a major revision of the language that is not completely backward-compatible with previous versions. However, many of its major features have been backported to the Python 2.6.x and 2.7.x version series, and releases of Python 3 include the 2to3 utility, which automates the translation of Python 2 code to Python 3