Glossary of Terms

Low code is built on the work of 20+ years of code, SAS, and patterns. To talk about low code as a solution, as a stack, as a solution, we need some shared terms.

February 01, 2025

  • Low Code - A general term that describes a business or technical solution that uses the least amount of code possible. Attribution is impossible, as this is a condition, not a fixed pattern.

  • No Code - A general class of SAS products that allows a customer to access a feature or service without writing any code. This ranges from products like Hubspot, all the way to power tools like Bubble and Retool.com.

  • Tech Stack (aka Technology Stack) - A term long used in online sites and services to describe the collection of technology to provide a full web service. A tech stack can range from the topmost technology components to a full description of every element and component. Typically we think in terms of the broad terms.

  • LAMP (stack) - Cerca 2010 term for a tech stack composed of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The first letter of the components makes up the name. Linux provides the operating system. Apache is the web server technology that enables the application or service to talk to the web. MySQL is the open-source SQL Database. PHP is the server-side scripting language.

    This stack (might) have coined the term and was the foundation of many websites in the early 2000s. The use of PHP has fallen out of favor and has been replaced by front-end scripting frameworks and more performant server languages.

  • MERN (stack) - This is a stack composed of MongoDB, ExpressJS, React, and Node.js. MongoDB replaced MySQL in the LAMP stack. It’s a No-SQL storage engine. ExpressJS is a node.js open-source package that provided the web server requirements and replaced Apache. React is a front-end Javascript framework that runs in the browser and enables the application UI/UX experience. Finally, Node.js is a server-side programming language, that replaced PHP.

  • No SQL - a term that describes schema-less database solutions. This term covers a range of database solutions from Mongo to CouchDB. The lack of a fixed and enforced schema allows dynamic storage solutions.

  • SQL - a term that describes a strongly typed, table-centric database. SQL databases are very abundant and are in wide use today. MySQL, Postgres, Oracle, and many more.

  • Low Code Patterns - Coding and solution development patterns that use existing open source packages, vendors, or frameworks that limit custom code and leverage the features of other providers.

  • “Code Brain” - a term coined by myself to describe the urge, desire, and obsession of traditional software developers to write code for every challenge. This term describes the behavior, approaches, and terminology that lead to code-first solutions. Based on the Jan Post by Paul Krugman. My take.

  • Tech Debt - a widely used term to describe code that loses its initial business utility and requires the reinvestment of time and money to upgrade or enhance to keep it stable and applied. This term is never spoken about with love. It can be used as in insult. i.e. “…that coder creates more the tech debt then bugs…”. It is also a term used by tech teams to describe why existing code needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

  • Refactor - a term that describes the act of removing tech debt from a project, service,e or offering. A refactor can be small, and completed in hours, or take months and consume the time of entire teams. It’s the bain of a project manager. The killer of roadmaps, and the consumer of venture funding. Every developer applies their own definition to what is or what is not needed or driving a reactor.

  • Product Manager - a role in a company that sits between the tech team and management. Between tech and non-tech stakeholders. These people are the true heroes of startups and have to jump between managing up and down at the same time. These are the owners of the roadmap. The voice of the customer and the hardest working people on a team.

  • Agile - a term that describes a development process that uses scheduled work and delivery periods, with set roles and strict terminology to protect and preserve the value and voice of the customer in a product.

  • Kanban - a term that describes a development process that prioritizes work in process and the low work and tasks through a team or process.

  • Waterfall - a term that describes a development process in which all the requirements are replanned and then handed over to a tech team build.

  • Engineering Rigor - A term and or concept that describes the set of best practices developed by teams over time to ensure the smooth, safe, and efficient development of software. Big term. Covers a lot. There is no one description.

  • “First-Solution-Locking” - This is my term for when a solution is found, and research stops. Sometimes a new low-code tool comes on my radar, and it eats my brain. I have noticed that I stop looking and hyper-focus. This is not bad, but any low-code solution needs to sit in a matrix of comparable solutions.

    I recommend founders watch for this. Never commit to the first option. If you go with the first option, invest the time in finding the next best option. 

This list is incomplete and evolving...