The IT world has a mystical language. It may seem like an ordinary language that anyone from a corporate environment will be able to understand, but in time you’ll find that you hear certain expressions surprisingly often and they don’t mean what you may have thought.  
Yet just saying them can make investors reach for their wallets and managers start clapping. Yes, we’re talking about buzzwords, pearls of IT jargon that make presentations more interesting and emails more important.  

Let’s remember that there is a place for humour in the IT world too, and sometimes it’s laughable how often established buzzwords are thrown around offices as if they have the power to turn every project to gold. We’ve written a list of the 10 most common ‘IT clichés’ and translated them into ‘human language’. Let’s see if you can think of any more. 

1/ Disruptive technology 

Example: ‘We’re bringing a new disruptive technology to the market.’ 
Translation: ‘We’ve created something new. We want it to change the world, create new markets and influence trends, but it most likely won’t change anything.’ 

2/ Digital transformation 

Example: ‘We’re going through major digital transformation.’ 
Translation: ‘We’re putting things in the computer to make us look modern.’ 

3/ Big Data 

Example: ‘With big data we can analyze huge volumes of data in real-time, allowing us to make more informed decisions and uncover new opportunities.’ 
Translation: ‘We have so many numbers we don’t know what to do with them.’ 

4/ Greenfield project 

Example: ‘The Greenfield project is a unique opportunity to start from scratch and create a solution without the limiting influence of existing systems or infrastructure.’ 
Translation: ‘The project has already failed three times, so we’re starting over for the fourth time.’

5/ Single pane of glass 

Example: ‘Our “single pane of glass” solution allows us to give users a centralized view and control of all their systems and services from one place.’ 
Translation: ‘Now you can see all your problems on one screen, so you can stress out more efficiently.’

6/ Machine learning 

Example: ‘Machine learning enables our systems to learn from data and make predictions with minimal human intervention, increasing the efficiency and intelligence of processes.’ 
Translation: ‘Our programmes get smarter from what they find on the internet, so they basically have procrastination-based upgrades like the rest of us.’ 

7/ IoT 

Example: ‘IoT enables our devices and systems to communicate with each other and share data, increasing efficiency and productivity through automation and intelligent analytics.’ 
Translation: ‘IoT allows our office coffee machines to communicate with the printers. Scientific progress is finally solving problems we didn’t even know we had.’ 

8/ Hackathon 

Example: ‘Hackathon allows us to bring together different teams and talented individuals within the company to look for innovative solutions to problems together.’ 
Translation: ‘Hackathon is our favourite team activity; instead of climbing a ropes course, we write code while transforming our shared anxiety into creativity.’ 

9/ Agile 

Example: ‘We’re going agile.’ 
Translation: ‘Our plans change faster than you can say: “But yesterday you said…”, and we all pretend that’s how it should be.’

10/ Cloud computing 

Example: ‘Cloud computing is fundamentally transforming the way our teams work together, giving them easy access to shared resources and applications from anywhere, driving efficiency and innovation across the organisation.’
Translation: ‘With us, data disappears from your computer and appears somewhere in the virtual space, and you just hope you always remember the right password.’

Disclaimer 

Any resemblance to specific corporate environments is purely coincidental, and we were not inspired by any of our clients or TITANS IT experts when we wrote this. 

Are you looking for quality IT projects where you can joke about buzzwords but the cooperation works and makes sense? Or are you looking for candidates who have real results to show for themselves without unnecessary talk? Contact us and we’ll recommend the teams or people you need now.