Glossary
Automation software engineering and system integration glossary
Definitions of the terms of software engineering and architecture for automation systems — patterns, interfaces, testing, versioning and deployment — of system coordination, integration and orchestration across controllers, services and data, and of engineering, integration and validation from specification to factory and site acceptance tests. Every entry shows the German term and explains what the concept means for engineering teams and technical documentation.
Automation software engineering and architecture
Abstraction
German: Abstraktion
In software engineering, abstraction is the practice of representing a component by its essential behavior and interface while hiding implementation details that callers do not need. In automation software, abstraction lets application logic address a valve, drive or axis without knowing how the underlying hardware or fieldbus is accessed.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAcceptance test
German: Abnahmetest
In software and systems engineering, an acceptance test is a test carried out to determine whether a system or software satisfies its acceptance criteria and whether the customer or another authorized party accepts it. In automation projects, acceptance tests are often organized as a factory acceptance test (FAT) and a site acceptance test (SAT).
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAdapter pattern
German: Adaptermuster
In software engineering, the adapter pattern is a structural design pattern that converts the interface of an existing component into another interface that clients expect, so components with incompatible interfaces can work together without changing either of them.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesApplication binary interface (ABI)
German: Binäre Anwendungsschnittstelle (ABI)
In software engineering, an application binary interface (ABI) is the low-level interface between compiled program modules, or between a program and the operating system, that defines data layout, calling conventions, register use and binary formats. Two binaries can only work together without recompilation if they follow the same ABI.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesApplication programming interface (API)
German: Programmierschnittstelle (API)
In software engineering, an application programming interface (API) is a defined set of functions, data structures, messages or endpoints through which one software component offers services to other components, together with the rules for using them. In industrial automation, APIs connect control software, engineering tools, MES, cloud services and custom applications.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesArchitecture pattern
German: Architekturmuster
In software engineering, an architecture pattern is a proven, reusable solution to a recurring problem in the overall structure of a software system, describing its main components, their responsibilities and how they interact. Examples include layered, event-driven, component-based and hexagonal architectures.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesArtifact repository
German: Artefakt-Repository
In software engineering, an artifact repository is a managed storage system for versioned build outputs such as compiled binaries, libraries, packages, container images and firmware files, together with their metadata. It provides a controlled source for deployment and reuse, separate from the source code repository.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAtomic operation
German: Atomare Operation
In software engineering, an atomic operation is an operation that other tasks, threads or interrupts observe as indivisible: it either completes entirely or has not started, with no visible intermediate state. Atomic operations are used to share data safely between concurrent parts of a program.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAutomated test
German: Automatisierter Test
In software engineering, an automated test is a test whose execution, input provision and result evaluation are carried out by software rather than by a person, so it can be repeated consistently, for example on every change in a continuous integration pipeline.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAutomatic code generation
German: Automatische Codegenerierung
In software engineering, automatic code generation is the production of source code by a tool from a higher-level input such as a model, a table, a template or a configuration, rather than writing the code by hand. In automation, code is generated for example from plant engineering data, state machines or Simulink-style models.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAutomation software
German: Automatisierungssoftware
In industrial automation, automation software is the software that monitors, controls, visualizes or optimizes machines and plants, including control programs on PLCs and motion controllers, HMI and SCADA applications, MES functions and the engineering tools used to create them.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBinary compatibility
German: Binärkompatibilität
In software engineering, binary compatibility is the property that compiled software built against one version of a library, runtime or operating system continues to work with another version without recompilation, because the application binary interface (ABI) has not changed incompatibly.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBlue-green deployment
German: Blue-Green-Bereitstellung
In software engineering, blue-green deployment is a release technique in which two identical production environments exist: one (blue) serves users while the new version is installed and tested on the other (green), and traffic is then switched to green, with blue kept available for a fast rollback.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBranch (version control)
German: Branch
In version control, a branch is an independent line of development that diverges from a common point in the history of a repository, so changes can be made in isolation and later merged back or kept separate, for example for a release or a customer variant.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBuffer overflow
German: Pufferüberlauf
In software engineering, a buffer overflow is a defect in which a program writes data beyond the bounds of an allocated memory buffer, overwriting adjacent memory. It can cause crashes and undefined behavior and is a common source of security vulnerabilities that allow attackers to execute code.
Software engineering · OT security
Definition and examplesBug
German: Programmfehler
In software engineering, a bug is a defect in software, such as an error in code, configuration or design, that can cause the software to behave differently from its specification or intended behavior when it is executed under certain conditions.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBuild artifact
German: Build-Artefakt
In software engineering, a build artifact is a file or package produced by a build process, such as an executable, library, firmware image, container image, compiled PLC project or generated documentation, that is stored, tested and deployed as a unit.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBuild configuration
German: Build-Konfiguration
In software engineering, a build configuration is the set of settings that control how source code is turned into build artifacts, such as target platform, compiler options, optimization level, debug or release mode, included modules and compile-time switches.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBuild pipeline
German: Build-Pipeline
In software engineering, a build pipeline is an automated sequence of steps that turns source code into tested build artifacts, typically including retrieving the source, resolving dependencies, compiling, running static checks and automated tests, and publishing the results.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesBuild system
German: Build-System
In software engineering, a build system is a tool that automates the transformation of source files into build artifacts by determining dependencies between files and running compilers, linkers, code generators and other tools in the correct order. Examples include Make, CMake, MSBuild, Gradle and Bazel.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCanary deployment
German: Canary-Bereitstellung
In software engineering, canary deployment is a release technique in which a new version is first rolled out to a small subset of users, devices or sites while the rest keep the current version, and the rollout is widened only if monitoring shows no problems.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCheckpoint (software)
German: Prüfpunkt
In software engineering, a checkpoint is a saved snapshot of a program's or system's state at a defined point, from which execution can be resumed or restored after a failure or interruption, instead of starting again from the beginning.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCI/CD pipeline
German: CI/CD-Pipeline
In software engineering, a CI/CD pipeline is an automated workflow that combines continuous integration (building and testing every change) with continuous delivery or deployment (moving tested artifacts through further environments toward production).
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCircular buffer
German: Ringpuffer
In software engineering, a circular buffer is a fixed-size data structure that stores elements in a continuous loop: when the end is reached, writing wraps around to the start, and, depending on the design, the oldest data is either overwritten or new data is rejected when the buffer is full.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCloud-native application
German: Cloudnative Anwendung
In software engineering, a cloud-native application is an application designed to run in dynamic, elastic environments such as public, private or edge clouds, typically built from loosely coupled services packaged in containers, managed by orchestration and delivered through automated pipelines.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCode coverage
German: Codeabdeckung
In software testing, code coverage is a measure of which parts of the source code have been executed by a set of tests, expressed for example as the percentage of statements, branches or conditions exercised.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCode module
German: Codemodul
In software engineering, a code module is a self-contained unit of source code, such as a file, package, library or program organization unit, that groups related functionality behind a defined interface and can be developed, tested and reused separately.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCode quality
German: Codequalität
In software engineering, code quality is the degree to which source code meets characteristics such as correctness, readability, maintainability, reliability, efficiency and security, and complies with the coding standards that apply to the project.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCode review
German: Code-Review
In software engineering, a code review is a systematic examination of source code changes by one or more people other than the author, to find defects, check compliance with coding standards and requirements, and share knowledge before the change is accepted.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCoding guideline
German: Kodierrichtlinie
In software engineering, a coding guideline is a documented recommendation on how to write source code, covering for example naming, structure, comments, language features to avoid and error handling, so that code is consistent, readable and less error-prone.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCoding standard
German: Programmierrichtlinie
In software engineering, a coding standard is a set of binding rules for writing source code in a given language or project, such as MISRA C or CERT C, that restricts language features and prescribes practices to improve safety, security, reliability and maintainability, usually with a defined process for checking compliance and approving deviations.
Software engineering · Standards
Definition and examplesCohesion
German: Kohäsion
In software engineering, cohesion is the degree to which the elements inside a module or component belong together and serve a single, well-defined purpose. High cohesion makes modules easier to understand, test, reuse and change.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCommunication driver
German: Kommunikationstreiber
In industrial automation, a communication driver is a software component that implements a communication protocol or interface, such as a fieldbus, industrial Ethernet or serial protocol, so that an application like a SCADA system, HMI or gateway can exchange data with devices without handling protocol details itself.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCompile-time configuration
German: Konfiguration zur Übersetzungszeit
In software engineering, compile-time configuration is the selection of software features, parameters or variants when the source code is compiled, for example through preprocessor symbols, compiler switches or conditional compilation, so the resulting binary contains only the chosen options and they cannot be changed without rebuilding.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCompiler
German: Compiler
In software engineering, a compiler is a program that translates source code written in a programming language into another form, usually machine code, bytecode or an intermediate representation, before the program is executed. PLC engineering tools contain compilers that translate IEC 61131-3 languages into code for the target controller.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesComponent interface
German: Komponentenschnittstelle
In software engineering, a component interface is the defined set of operations, data, events and rules through which a software component interacts with other components, hiding the component's internal implementation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesComponent test
German: Komponententest
In software engineering, a component test is a test of an individual software component or module in isolation from the rest of the system, checking that it behaves according to its specification, with other components replaced by stubs, mocks or simulations where needed.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesComponent-based architecture
German: Komponentenbasierte Architektur
In software engineering, component-based architecture is an architecture pattern in which a system is composed of reusable, independently deployable components that interact only through well-defined interfaces, so components can be replaced or reused without changing the rest of the system.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesConcurrency
German: Nebenläufigkeit
In software engineering, concurrency is the property of a system in which several tasks, threads or processes are in progress during overlapping time periods, either interleaved on one processor or running in parallel on several cores, and may share resources or data.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesConfiguration as code
German: Konfiguration als Code
In software engineering, configuration as code is the practice of managing application and system configuration in machine-readable text files kept under version control, so that configuration changes are reviewed, versioned, tested and deployed in the same way as source code.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesConfiguration file
German: Konfigurationsdatei
In software engineering, a configuration file is a file that stores settings read by a program at startup or runtime, such as addresses, parameters, feature switches and paths, so that behavior can be adapted without changing or recompiling the program. Common formats include INI, XML, JSON and YAML.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesConfiguration parameter
German: Konfigurationsparameter
In software and automation engineering, a configuration parameter is a named, adjustable value that adapts the behavior of software or a device to a specific application, installation or variant without changing its program, for example a timeout, a scaling factor, an IP address or an enabled option.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContainer (software)
German: Container
In software engineering, a container is an isolated runtime instance of an application packaged with its libraries and dependencies, which shares the host operating system kernel but has its own file system, process space and network view. Containers are started from container images by a container runtime.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContainer image
German: Container-Image
In software engineering, a container image is an immutable, layered package that contains an application, its libraries, runtime and configuration defaults, plus metadata describing how to run it, from which containers are created. The Open Container Initiative (OCI) specifies a common image format.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContainer orchestration
German: Container-Orchestrierung
In software engineering, container orchestration is the automated deployment, scheduling, scaling, networking, health monitoring and recovery of containers across one or more hosts, performed by platforms such as Kubernetes or lightweight variants for edge devices.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContainer registry
German: Container-Registry
In software engineering, a container registry is a server or service that stores and distributes container images, organized in repositories and identified by tags and content digests, with access control for pushing and pulling images.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContainer runtime
German: Container-Laufzeit
In software engineering, a container runtime is the software on a host that creates, starts, stops and isolates containers from container images, using operating system features such as namespaces and control groups. Examples include containerd, CRI-O and runc.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContext switch
German: Kontextwechsel
In operating systems and real-time software, a context switch is the process of saving the state of the currently running task, thread or process, such as its registers and stack pointer, and restoring the state of another one so the processor can continue executing it.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContinuous delivery (CD)
German: Kontinuierliche Bereitstellung (CD)
In software engineering, continuous delivery (CD) is the practice of keeping software in a releasable state at all times by building, testing and preparing every change automatically, so that a release to production can be made at any time through a deliberate, usually manual decision.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContinuous deployment
German: Kontinuierliche Produktionsbereitstellung
In software engineering, continuous deployment is the practice of automatically releasing every change that passes all stages of the automated pipeline to production, without a manual approval step.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesContinuous integration (CI)
German: Kontinuierliche Integration (CI)
In software engineering, continuous integration (CI) is the practice of merging developers' changes into a shared main line frequently, at least daily, with each merge triggering an automated build and test run so integration problems are detected early.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesControl software
German: Steuerungssoftware
In industrial automation, control software is the software that directly controls a machine or process by reading inputs from sensors, executing control logic and writing outputs to actuators, typically running on a PLC, motion controller, DCS controller or embedded controller.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCooperative scheduling
German: Kooperative Ablaufplanung
In operating systems and real-time software, cooperative scheduling is a scheduling approach in which a running task keeps the processor until it voluntarily yields, blocks or finishes, and the scheduler never interrupts it to run another task.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCoroutine
German: Koroutine
In programming, a coroutine is a routine that can suspend its execution at defined points and later resume from where it stopped, keeping its local state, which allows several activities to be interleaved cooperatively within a single thread.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCoupling
German: Kopplung
In software engineering, coupling is the degree of interdependence between software modules or components, that is, how much one module relies on the internal details, data or behavior of another. Strong coupling means a change in one module is likely to require changes in others.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesCritical section
German: Kritischer Abschnitt
In concurrent programming, a critical section is a part of a program that accesses a shared resource, such as a variable, data structure or device, and must not be executed by more than one task or thread at the same time. Mutual exclusion mechanisms, such as mutexes, semaphores or disabling interrupts, protect it.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDangling pointer
German: Ungültiger Zeiger
In programming, a dangling pointer is a pointer or reference that still points to a memory location after the object stored there has been freed or has gone out of scope. Accessing it causes undefined behavior, such as data corruption, crashes or exploitable security vulnerabilities.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesData encoding
German: Datenkodierung
In computing, data encoding is the representation of information in a defined format for storage or transmission, for example character encodings such as UTF-8, number formats and byte order, or serialization formats such as JSON, XML, Protocol Buffers or the OPC UA binary encoding.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDeadline (real-time)
German: Ausführungsfrist
In real-time systems, a deadline is the latest point in time by which a task, job or response must be completed after its release or triggering event for the result to be correct or useful. Whether missing a deadline is a failure, a degradation or tolerable defines hard, firm and soft real time.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDeadlock
German: Verklemmung
In concurrent systems, a deadlock is a situation in which two or more tasks, threads or processes are permanently blocked because each is waiting for a resource or event held by another, so none of them can proceed.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDependency injection
German: Abhängigkeitsinjektion
In software engineering, dependency injection is a design technique in which a component receives the objects or services it depends on from outside, for example through constructor parameters, properties or method arguments, instead of creating or locating them itself.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDependency management
German: Abhängigkeitsverwaltung
In software engineering, dependency management is the practice of declaring, obtaining, versioning, updating and tracking the external libraries, packages and components a software project relies on, including their transitive dependencies and licenses.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDeployment pipeline
German: Bereitstellungspipeline
In software engineering, a deployment pipeline is an automated sequence of stages that takes a tested build artifact through further environments, such as test, staging and production, applying checks, approvals and deployment steps at each stage.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDesign pattern
German: Entwurfsmuster
In software engineering, a design pattern is a named, reusable solution to a recurring design problem within a software component, describing the participating elements, their relationships and the trade-offs, without prescribing specific code. Well-known examples include the adapter, facade, factory, observer and state patterns.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDevice driver
German: Gerätetreiber
In computing, a device driver is software that allows an operating system or runtime to control a hardware device, such as a network interface, fieldbus card, I/O module or camera, by translating generic requests into device-specific operations and handling interrupts from the device.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDistributed tracing
German: Verteilte Ablaufverfolgung
In software engineering, distributed tracing is a technique for following a request or transaction as it passes through several services or components by propagating a shared trace identifier and recording timed spans for each step, so latency and failures can be located across a distributed system.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDomain-specific language (DSL)
German: Domänenspezifische Sprache (DSL)
In software engineering, a domain-specific language (DSL) is a programming, modeling or specification language designed for a particular application domain, offering notation and concepts of that domain rather than general-purpose programming constructs.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDynamic code analysis
German: Dynamische Codeanalyse
In software engineering, dynamic code analysis is the examination of software by executing it and observing its behavior, for example measuring coverage, detecting memory errors, race conditions or performance problems, or fuzzing interfaces with unexpected inputs.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesDynamic memory allocation
German: Dynamische Speicherzuweisung
In programming, dynamic memory allocation is the reservation of memory at runtime from a heap, in amounts determined while the program runs, with the memory later released explicitly or by garbage collection. It contrasts with static allocation, where memory is reserved when the program is built or started.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEarliest-deadline-first (EDF)
German: Earliest Deadline First (EDF)
In real-time scheduling, earliest-deadline-first (EDF) is a dynamic-priority algorithm that always runs the ready task whose absolute deadline is closest. For independent periodic tasks with deadlines equal to their periods on one processor, EDF can meet all deadlines as long as total processor utilization does not exceed 100 percent.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEdge application
German: Edge-Anwendung
In industrial automation, an edge application is software that runs on computing resources close to machines and plants, such as industrial PCs, gateways or edge servers, to collect, process, analyze or forward data locally instead of, or before, sending it to a central data center or cloud.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEmbedded software
German: Eingebettete Software
In computing, embedded software is software that runs on a dedicated computer system built into a device, such as a sensor, drive, controller or machine, to perform specific functions, typically with constraints on memory, processing power, timing and power consumption.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEncapsulation
German: Kapselung
In software engineering, encapsulation is the principle of bundling data with the operations that act on it and restricting direct access to that data from outside, so other parts of the program can only interact with a module or object through its defined interface.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesError handling
German: Fehlerbehandlung
In software engineering, error handling is the set of techniques by which a program detects, reports and responds to errors, such as invalid inputs, failed operations, communication faults or resource shortages, so that it continues in a defined way instead of producing undefined behavior.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEvent queue
German: Ereigniswarteschlange
In software engineering, an event queue is a data structure in which events or messages are stored in order of arrival until a consumer processes them, decoupling the component that produces an event from the one that handles it.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEvent-driven architecture
German: Ereignisgesteuerte Architektur
In software engineering, event-driven architecture is an architecture pattern in which components communicate by producing and reacting to events, which are notifications that something has happened, typically through event queues or message brokers, rather than by calling each other directly.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesEvent-triggered execution
German: Ereignisgesteuerte Ausführung
In real-time and automation software, event-triggered execution is an execution model in which a task or function runs in response to the occurrence of an event, such as an interrupt, a signal change or a received message, rather than at fixed time intervals.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesException (software)
German: Ausnahme
In programming, an exception is an event during program execution that disrupts the normal flow, such as division by zero, an invalid memory access or a failed operation, and that is signaled by transferring control to a handler instead of continuing with the next statement.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesException handling
German: Ausnahmebehandlung
In programming, exception handling is the mechanism and practice of catching exceptions raised during program execution and responding to them in a defined way, for example by cleaning up resources, logging, retrying, falling back or passing the error on.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesExecutable file
German: Ausführbare Datei
In computing, an executable file is a file containing a program in a form that a computer, runtime or controller can load and run directly, such as machine code in an operating system format like ELF or PE, or a compiled application image for a controller.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesExecution environment
German: Ausführungsumgebung
In software engineering, an execution environment is the combination of hardware, operating system, runtime system, libraries and configuration in which a program runs and on whose services it depends, such as a PLC runtime, a Java virtual machine or a container host.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesExecution jitter
German: Ausführungsjitter
In real-time systems, execution jitter is the variation in the timing of a task's execution from one period to the next, such as deviations in its start time, completion time or cycle length relative to the intended schedule.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFacade pattern
German: Fassadenmuster
In software engineering, the facade pattern is a structural design pattern that provides a single, simplified interface to a complex subsystem, so clients can use common functions without dealing with the subsystem's individual components.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFactory pattern
German: Fabrikmuster
In software engineering, the factory pattern is a creational design pattern in which objects are created through a dedicated factory function, method or object instead of being instantiated directly by the code that uses them, so the concrete type can be chosen at runtime or by configuration.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFail-fast behavior
German: Fail-Fast-Verhalten
In software engineering, fail-fast behavior is a design principle by which a component detects invalid states, inputs or preconditions as early as possible and stops the current operation immediately with a clear error, instead of continuing and failing later in a less predictable way.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFault handling
German: Störungsbehandlung
In automation and systems engineering, fault handling is the detection, reporting, reaction to and recovery from faults in hardware, software, communication or the process, so that a machine or system reaches and maintains a defined state and can be returned to operation in a controlled way.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFeature branch
German: Feature-Branch
In version control, a feature branch is a branch created to develop a single feature, fix or change in isolation from the main line, which is merged back, usually after review and automated checks, once the work is complete.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFeature flag
German: Feature-Schalter
In software engineering, a feature flag is a runtime configuration switch that enables or disables a feature without deploying new code, used for example to release features gradually, test them with selected users or turn them off quickly if problems occur.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFirm real time
German: Feste Echtzeit
In real-time systems, firm real time describes timing requirements under which a result delivered after its deadline is useless and is discarded, but occasional deadline misses do not cause a system failure, as long as they stay within defined limits.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFirmware
German: Firmware
In computing, firmware is software stored in non-volatile memory of a hardware device that provides its basic control, startup and operating functions, such as the operating software of a PLC, drive, sensor, network switch or communication module, and that is typically updated as a whole image.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFixed-priority scheduling
German: Ablaufplanung mit fester Priorität
In real-time systems, fixed-priority scheduling is a scheduling approach in which each task is assigned a priority at design time that does not change at runtime, and the scheduler always runs the highest-priority ready task, usually preempting lower-priority ones.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesFormal verification
German: Formale Verifikation
In software and systems engineering, formal verification is the use of mathematical methods, such as model checking, theorem proving or abstract interpretation, to prove or disprove that a system or its model satisfies a formally specified property for all possible inputs and states within the analyzed scope.
Software engineering · Functional safety
Definition and examplesFunctional programming
German: Funktionale Programmierung
In software engineering, functional programming is a programming paradigm that builds programs from functions that map inputs to outputs, favoring pure functions without side effects, immutable data and the composition of functions over changing state step by step.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesGarbage collection
German: Automatische Speicherbereinigung
In programming, garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management in which the runtime system identifies memory that is no longer reachable by the program and reclaims it, so developers do not free memory explicitly. It is used for example in Java, C#, Python and Go.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesGeneral-purpose programming language
German: Universelle Programmiersprache
In software engineering, a general-purpose programming language is a programming language designed to build software for a wide range of application domains, such as C, C++, C#, Java, Python or Rust, as opposed to a domain-specific language designed for one domain.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesGeneric programming
German: Generische Programmierung
In software engineering, generic programming is a programming style in which algorithms and data structures are written in terms of type parameters to be specified later, so the same code can work with different data types while keeping type safety, for example with C++ templates or generics in C# and Java.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesGraceful degradation
German: Kontrollierte Leistungsreduzierung
In systems and software engineering, graceful degradation is the ability of a system to keep providing its most important functions, possibly with reduced performance or features, when some of its components fail or resources become unavailable, instead of failing completely.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesHard real time
German: Harte Echtzeit
In real-time systems, hard real time describes timing requirements under which every deadline must be met, because missing even one is considered a system failure that can cause damage, loss of control or hazardous behavior.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesHardware-in-the-loop test
German: Hardware-in-the-Loop-Test
In systems and software engineering, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test is a test in which the real control hardware with its software is connected to a real-time simulation of the machine or process it controls, so the controller can be tested under realistic and fault conditions without the physical plant.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesHealth check
German: Zustandsprüfung
In software engineering, a health check is an automated test, often exposed as an endpoint or status signal, that reports whether a service, application or device is working correctly and able to perform its function, so that monitoring or orchestration systems can react to failures.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesHexagonal architecture
German: Hexagonale Architektur
In software engineering, hexagonal architecture, also called ports and adapters, is an architecture pattern that places the application's core logic at the center, independent of external technologies, and connects it to user interfaces, databases, devices and other systems through defined ports implemented by exchangeable adapters.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesHypervisor
German: Hypervisor
In computing, a hypervisor is software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines by sharing and isolating the physical resources of a host, such as processor, memory and devices, among several guest operating systems. Real-time hypervisors allow a real-time control system and a general-purpose operating system to run on the same industrial PC.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInfrastructure as code (IaC)
German: Infrastruktur als Code (IaC)
In software engineering and IT operations, infrastructure as code (IaC) is the practice of defining and managing computing infrastructure, such as servers, networks, virtual machines, container platforms and their settings, through machine-readable definition files kept under version control, instead of manual configuration.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInheritance
German: Vererbung
In object-oriented programming, inheritance is a mechanism by which a class or function block (the subclass) is derived from another (the base class), taking over its data and methods and extending or overriding them. IEC 61131-3 supports inheritance for function blocks through the EXTENDS keyword.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInteger overflow
German: Ganzzahlüberlauf
In programming, an integer overflow occurs when the result of an arithmetic operation on integers exceeds the range that the data type can represent, causing the value to wrap around, be truncated or trigger an error, depending on the language and platform.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesIntegration test
German: Integrationstest
In software and systems engineering, an integration test is a test that checks the interaction between integrated components or systems, including their interfaces, data exchange and timing, to find defects that do not appear when the components are tested in isolation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInterface compatibility
German: Schnittstellenkompatibilität
In software and systems engineering, interface compatibility is the property that two components can interact correctly through an interface, because they agree on its operations, data structures, encodings, semantics, timing and version, so that one side can be changed or replaced without breaking the other.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInterface contract
German: Schnittstellenvertrag
In software engineering, an interface contract is the explicit specification of the mutual obligations between a component and its users at an interface, including preconditions the caller must meet, postconditions and guarantees the component provides, invariants, error behavior and timing.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInterface version
German: Schnittstellenversion
In software and systems engineering, an interface version is an identifier that marks a specific, defined state of an interface's specification, so that components can declare which version they implement or require and changes can be managed and communicated.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInterpreter
German: Interpreter
In computing, an interpreter is a program that executes source code or intermediate code directly, statement by statement or in small units, at runtime, instead of translating the whole program into machine code beforehand. Python and many scripting languages are typically interpreted.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInterrupt service routine (ISR)
German: Interrupt-Service-Routine (ISR)
In embedded and real-time systems, an interrupt service routine (ISR) is a function that the processor executes in response to a hardware or software interrupt, temporarily suspending the running code to handle an urgent event, such as a timer tick, a received message or an input signal change.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesInversion of control
German: Umkehrung der Steuerung
In software engineering, inversion of control is a design principle in which the flow of control or the provision of dependencies is handed from a component to a framework or container, which calls the component's code when needed instead of the component calling the framework.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesKernel module
German: Kernelmodul
In operating systems, a kernel module is a piece of code that can be loaded into and unloaded from the running operating system kernel to extend its functionality, typically to add device drivers, file systems or network protocols, and that runs with full kernel privileges.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLayered architecture
German: Schichtenarchitektur
In software engineering, layered architecture is an architecture pattern that organizes a system into horizontal layers, each providing services to the layer above and using services of the layer below, such as hardware access, device logic, process logic and user interface.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLinker
German: Linker
In software development, a linker is a tool that combines object files produced by a compiler and required libraries into a single executable, library or firmware image, resolving references between them and assigning final memory addresses.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLinting
German: Linting
In software engineering, linting is the automated checking of source code, configuration or documentation files for stylistic issues, suspicious constructs and violations of coding rules, using a tool called a linter, usually without executing the code.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLivelock
German: Livelock
In concurrent systems, a livelock is a situation in which two or more tasks or processes keep changing their state in response to each other but make no progress, for example by repeatedly retrying or yielding, so the system appears active while no useful work is done.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLiveness probe
German: Lebenszeichenprüfung
In container orchestration and service monitoring, a liveness probe is a periodic check that determines whether an application instance is still running correctly or has become stuck, so the platform can restart it automatically if the check fails repeatedly.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLogging
German: Protokollierung
In software engineering, logging is the recording of events, states, errors and actions that occur while software runs, as timestamped entries in a log, so that behavior can be monitored, problems analyzed and actions traced afterward.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesLoose coupling
German: Lose Kopplung
In software engineering, loose coupling is a design property in which components depend on each other only through small, stable, well-defined interfaces and know as little as possible about each other's internals, so each can be changed, replaced or deployed with minimal impact on the others.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMain branch
German: Hauptbranch
In version control, the main branch is the long-lived branch of a repository that holds the integrated, reference state of the code from which releases and feature branches are derived.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMajor version
Semantic Versioning 2.0.0German: Hauptversion
In software versioning, the major version is the first number of a version identifier such as 3.1.4; under semantic versioning it is incremented when a release makes changes that are incompatible with the previous public interface.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMemory allocation
German: Speicherzuweisung
In software engineering, memory allocation is the reservation of memory for program data, either statically at compile or link time, on the stack at function entry, or dynamically on the heap at run time.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMemory leak
German: Speicherleck
In software engineering, a memory leak is a defect in which a program keeps allocated memory it no longer needs, so available memory shrinks over time until performance degrades or the program fails.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMemory pool
German: Speicherpool
In embedded and real-time software, a memory pool is a region of memory reserved at startup and divided into blocks, usually of fixed size, that the program takes and returns at run time instead of using general heap allocation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMerge
German: Zusammenführung
In version control, a merge is the operation that combines the changes of two branches into one, producing a result that contains the work of both.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMerge conflict
German: Zusammenführungskonflikt
In version control, a merge conflict occurs when two branches changed the same part of a file, or one changed and the other deleted it, so the tool cannot combine them automatically and a person must decide the result.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMessage queue
German: Nachrichtenwarteschlange
In software architecture, a message queue is a buffer that stores messages from senders until receivers retrieve them, decoupling the two in time and usually delivering messages in order.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMessage-oriented architecture
German: Nachrichtenorientierte Architektur
In software architecture, a message-oriented architecture is a style in which components communicate by exchanging asynchronous messages through queues or a broker instead of calling each other directly.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMicroservice architecture
German: Microservice-Architektur
In software architecture, a microservice architecture structures an application as a set of small, independently deployable services, each owning one business capability and its data and communicating over the network through defined interfaces.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMiddleware
German: Middleware
In software engineering, middleware is software that sits between the operating system or network and applications and provides common services such as communication, messaging, data access or security, so applications need not implement them.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMinor version
Semantic Versioning 2.0.0German: Nebenversion
In software versioning, the minor version is the second number of a version identifier such as 3.1.4; under semantic versioning it is incremented when functionality is added in a backward-compatible way.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMock object
German: Mock-Objekt
In software testing, a mock object is a test double that replaces a real dependency and checks that the code under test calls it in the expected way, for example with the right arguments and number of calls.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesModel checking
German: Modellprüfung
In formal verification, model checking is an automated technique that explores all reachable states of a finite model of a system to determine whether it satisfies a formally specified property, and produces a counterexample if it does not.
Software engineering · Functional safety
Definition and examplesModel-based development
German: Modellbasierte Entwicklung
In software and systems engineering, model-based development uses models, for example of control behavior, plant dynamics or architecture, as central development artifacts for specification, simulation, verification and often code generation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesModel-driven development
German: Modellgetriebene Entwicklung
In software engineering, model-driven development is an approach in which formal models are the primary development artifacts and code, configuration or documentation are generated from them through defined transformations.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesModular programming
German: Modulare Programmierung
In software engineering, modular programming is the practice of dividing a program into separate modules with well-defined interfaces, each responsible for one part of the functionality and changeable with limited effect on the others.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMultithreading
German: Multithreading
In software engineering, multithreading is the execution of several threads within one process, sharing its memory, so that tasks can run concurrently or in parallel on multiple processor cores.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMutation testing
German: Mutationstest
In software testing, mutation testing evaluates the quality of a test suite by making small deliberate changes (mutants) to the code and checking whether the tests detect them; undetected mutants reveal weak tests.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMutex
German: Mutex
In concurrent programming, a mutex is a synchronization object that only one thread can hold at a time, used to protect a critical section or shared resource from simultaneous access.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesMutual exclusion
German: Gegenseitiger Ausschluss
In concurrent programming, mutual exclusion is the property that at most one thread or process executes a critical section or uses a shared resource at any time.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesNull pointer
German: Nullzeiger
In programming, a null pointer is a pointer or reference that deliberately points to no valid object; dereferencing it is an error that typically crashes the program or, in some languages, causes undefined behavior.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesObject code
German: Objektcode
In software engineering, object code is the machine code or intermediate code produced by a compiler or assembler from source code, typically not yet linked into an executable program.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesObject-oriented programming
IEC 61131-3German: Objektorientierte Programmierung
In software engineering, object-oriented programming is a paradigm that structures programs as objects combining data and the operations on it, using classes, encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism; IEC 61131-3 (edition 3) added object-oriented extensions to function blocks.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesObservability
German: Beobachtbarkeit
In software operations, observability is the degree to which the internal state of a running system can be inferred from its external outputs, typically logs, metrics and traces, so that unexpected problems can be investigated.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesObserver pattern
German: Beobachtermuster
In software design, the observer pattern is a design pattern in which an object (the subject) keeps a list of dependents (observers) and notifies them automatically when its state changes.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesOperating-system kernel
German: Betriebssystemkern
In computing, the operating-system kernel is the core part of an operating system that runs with the highest privileges and manages processor time, memory, devices and communication between processes.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesOver-the-air update (OTA)
German: Over-the-Air-Aktualisierung (OTA)
In connected devices, an over-the-air update (OTA) is the delivery and installation of software or firmware through a wireless or network connection without physical access to the device.
Software engineering · OT security
Definition and examplesPackage manager
German: Paketverwaltung
In software engineering, a package manager is a tool that installs, updates, configures and removes software packages and resolves their dependencies from defined repositories.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesParallel execution
German: Parallele Ausführung
In computing, parallel execution is the simultaneous execution of several tasks or instructions on multiple processor cores or processing units at the same instant.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPatch version
Semantic Versioning 2.0.0German: Patch-Version
In software versioning, the patch version is the third number of a version identifier such as 3.1.4; under semantic versioning it is incremented for backward-compatible bug fixes only.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPolymorphism
German: Polymorphie
In object-oriented programming, polymorphism is the ability to use objects of different types through a common interface, with the operation actually executed depending on the object's concrete type at run time or compile time.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPreemptive scheduling
German: Präemptive Ablaufplanung
In operating systems, preemptive scheduling is a scheduling method in which the scheduler can interrupt a running task at any time to run a task of higher priority or when the running task's time slice expires.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPriority inheritance
German: Prioritätsvererbung
In real-time systems, priority inheritance is a protocol in which a task holding a resource that a higher-priority task is waiting for temporarily inherits that higher priority until it releases the resource, limiting priority inversion.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPriority inversion
German: Prioritätsinversion
In real-time systems, priority inversion is a situation in which a high-priority task waits for a resource held by a low-priority task, while medium-priority tasks preempt the low-priority task and thus indirectly delay the high-priority task.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesProcess (computing)
German: Prozess
In operating systems, a process is an instance of a program in execution, with its own address space, resources and one or more threads, isolated from other processes by the operating system.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesProducer-consumer pattern
German: Erzeuger-Verbraucher-Muster
In concurrent programming, the producer-consumer pattern decouples tasks that produce data from tasks that consume it through a shared buffer or queue, with synchronization ensuring that producers wait when it is full and consumers wait when it is empty.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesProtocol stack
German: Protokollstapel
In communication systems, a protocol stack is a set of layered protocols and the software that implements them, in which each layer uses the services of the layer below and offers services to the layer above.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesProvided interface
UML / SysMLGerman: Bereitgestellte Schnittstelle
In component-based software and system modeling, a provided interface is an interface that a component implements and offers to other components, defining the operations or services they can use.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPublish-subscribe pattern
German: Publish-Subscribe-Muster
In software architecture, the publish-subscribe pattern is a messaging pattern in which publishers send messages to topics without knowing the receivers, and every subscriber of a topic receives the messages published to it.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesPull request
German: Pull Request
In version control platforms, a pull request is a proposal to merge changes from one branch into another, used as the place for code review, discussion and automated checks before the merge.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRace condition
German: Wettlaufsituation
In concurrent software, a race condition is a defect in which the result depends on the uncontrolled timing or order of concurrent operations, for example two tasks reading and writing shared data without synchronization.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRate-monotonic scheduling
German: Ratenmonotone Ablaufplanung
In real-time systems, rate-monotonic scheduling is a fixed-priority preemptive scheduling method in which periodic tasks with shorter periods receive higher priorities; it comes with schedulability tests that show whether all deadlines are met.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesReadiness probe
German: Bereitschaftsprüfung
In container orchestration, a readiness probe is a periodic check that determines whether a running service instance is ready to receive requests; instances that fail it are temporarily removed from traffic without being restarted.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesReal-time operating system (RTOS)
German: Echtzeitbetriebssystem (RTOS)
In embedded computing, a real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system designed to execute tasks within bounded, predictable time, typically offering priority-based preemptive scheduling, fast interrupt handling and deterministic synchronization.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesReal-time software
German: Echtzeitsoftware
In computing, real-time software is software whose correctness depends not only on its results but also on producing them within defined time limits.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRecovery mechanism
German: Wiederherstellungsmechanismus
In software and systems engineering, a recovery mechanism is a designed means that returns a system or component to a defined operational state after a fault, failure or interruption, for example by restart, retry, failover or restoring saved state.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesReentrant function
German: Wiedereintrittsfähige Funktion
In programming, a reentrant function is a function that can be interrupted during execution and safely called again, for example by an interrupt or another task, before the first call has finished, because it keeps no unprotected shared or static state.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRefactoring
German: Refactoring
In software engineering, refactoring is restructuring existing code to improve its internal quality, such as readability, structure or testability, without changing its externally observable behavior.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesReference architecture
German: Referenzarchitektur
In systems and software engineering, a reference architecture is a generic, reusable architecture for a domain or product family that defines typical structures, components, interfaces and terminology from which concrete architectures are derived.
Software engineering · Standards
Definition and examplesRegression test
German: Regressionstest
In software testing, a regression test is a repeated test of previously working functionality after a change, to detect whether the change has introduced new defects in unchanged areas.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRelease candidate
German: Freigabekandidat
In software release management, a release candidate is a build that is feature-complete and considered ready for release unless final testing reveals significant defects.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRelease note
German: Freigabehinweis
In software and product documentation, a release note is a document delivered with a release that describes what changed compared with the previous version, including new features, fixed defects, known issues, compatibility information and required actions.
Software engineering · Technical documentation
Definition and examplesRelease package
German: Freigabepaket
In software release management, a release package is the complete, identified set of deliverables for a release, such as binaries, configuration files, documentation, release notes, licenses and checksums.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRemote procedure call (RPC)
German: Entfernter Prozeduraufruf (RPC)
In distributed computing, a remote procedure call (RPC) is a communication mechanism that lets a program call a procedure in another process, usually on another computer, as if it were a local call, with the framework handling message transfer.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRemote software update
German: Fernaktualisierung der Software
In connected automation systems, a remote software update is the installation of new software or firmware on a device or machine from a remote location over a network, without a technician on site.
Software engineering · OT security
Definition and examplesRequest-response pattern
German: Request-Response-Muster
In communication and software architecture, the request-response pattern is an interaction in which a client sends a request to a server and waits for, or later receives, a response that belongs to that request.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRequired interface
UML / SysMLGerman: Benötigte Schnittstelle
In component-based software and system modeling, a required interface is an interface that a component depends on and expects another component to provide in order to function.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesResponse time
German: Reaktionszeit
In software and real-time systems, response time is the time from a stimulus, such as an input event, request or task release, until the system produces the corresponding response or the task completes.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesReusable component
German: Wiederverwendbare Komponente
In software engineering, a reusable component is a software component designed, tested and documented so that it can be used in several products or projects without modification, typically configured through parameters and defined interfaces.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRing buffer
German: Ringpuffer
In programming, a ring buffer is a fixed-size buffer used as if its end were connected to its beginning, with separate read and write positions, so that data is written and read continuously without moving elements.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRollback
German: Rollback
In software deployment and data management, a rollback is the return of a system to a previous known-good state, for example reinstalling the previous software version after a failed update or undoing an incomplete database transaction.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRuntime configuration
German: Laufzeitkonfiguration
In software engineering, runtime configuration is configuration that a program reads or changes while it is running or at startup, such as parameters, connection settings or feature switches, without recompiling the software.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesRuntime environment
German: Laufzeitumgebung
In computing, a runtime environment is the software layer that provides the services a program needs while it executes, such as memory management, task execution, libraries and access to hardware or the operating system.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSchema validation
German: Schemavalidierung
In data processing, schema validation is the automated check of a data document, such as XML, JSON or a configuration file, against a schema that defines its permitted structure, data types, values and required elements.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSecure software update
IEC 62443-4-2German: Sichere Softwareaktualisierung
In OT security, a secure software update is an update process that ensures only authentic, unmodified and authorized software is installed, typically by digital signatures, integrity checks, access control and protection against unauthorized downgrades.
Software engineering · OT security
Definition and examplesSemantic versioning
Semantic Versioning 2.0.0German: Semantische Versionierung
In software engineering, semantic versioning is a versioning convention with identifiers in the form MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, where the major number changes for incompatible changes, the minor number for backward-compatible features and the patch number for backward-compatible fixes.
Software engineering · Standards
Definition and examplesSemaphore
German: Semaphor
In concurrent programming, a semaphore is a synchronization object holding a counter that tasks decrement to acquire and increment to release, used to limit access to a resource pool or to signal events between tasks.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSeparation of concerns
German: Trennung der Belange
In software and systems engineering, separation of concerns is the design principle of dividing a system into parts that each address a distinct concern, such as control logic, communication, visualization or safety, with minimal overlap.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSerialization format
German: Serialisierungsformat
In computing, a serialization format is a defined representation for converting in-memory data structures into a sequence of bytes or characters for storage or transmission, and back again, such as JSON, XML, Protocol Buffers or OPC UA Binary.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesService interface
German: Dienstschnittstelle
In service-oriented software, a service interface is the published description of the operations, messages and data formats through which a service can be used, independent of its internal implementation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesService-oriented architecture (SOA)
German: Serviceorientierte Architektur (SOA)
In software architecture, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a style in which functionality is provided as reusable services with published interfaces that other applications access over a network, often through shared middleware.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesShared memory
German: Gemeinsamer Speicher
In computing, shared memory is a memory area accessible to several processes, threads or processors, used to exchange data quickly without copying it through messages.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoft real time
German: Weiche Echtzeit
In real-time systems, soft real time describes timing requirements where missing a deadline degrades the quality or value of the result but does not constitute a system failure.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware architecture
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010German: Softwarearchitektur
In software engineering, software architecture is the fundamental organization of a software system: its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles guiding its design and evolution.
Software engineering · Standards
Definition and examplesSoftware component
German: Softwarekomponente
In software engineering, a software component is a modular, replaceable unit of software that encapsulates its implementation and interacts with its environment only through defined provided and required interfaces.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware configuration
German: Softwarekonfiguration
In software engineering, software configuration is the set of settings, parameters and selected options that adapts a software product to a specific installation, machine variant or use, and, in configuration management, the identified combination of software items and versions.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware defect
German: Softwarefehler
In software engineering, a software defect is an imperfection in code, design or configuration that can cause the software to fail to meet its requirements when it is executed under certain conditions.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware dependency
German: Softwareabhängigkeit
In software engineering, a software dependency is a component, library, service or tool that a piece of software requires in order to build or run.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware deployment
German: Softwarebereitstellung
In software engineering, software deployment is the set of activities that make a software release available for use on target systems, including installation, configuration, activation and verification.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware development kit (SDK)
German: Software Development Kit (SDK)
In software engineering, a software development kit (SDK) is a collection of libraries, tools, documentation and samples that developers use to build applications for a specific platform, device, protocol or service.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765German: Software Engineering
Software engineering is the systematic application of engineering principles and methods to the specification, design, development, verification, operation and maintenance of software.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware framework
German: Software-Framework
In software engineering, a software framework is a reusable software structure that provides generic functionality and a defined control flow, into which developers insert application-specific code at designated extension points.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware library
German: Softwarebibliothek
In software engineering, a software library is a collection of reusable, precompiled or source-level functions, classes or function blocks that programs call to perform common tasks.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware metric
German: Softwaremetrik
In software engineering, a software metric is a quantitative measure of a property of software or its development process, such as size, complexity, test coverage or defect density.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware module
German: Softwaremodul
In software engineering, a software module is a self-contained unit of source code, such as a file, package, program organization unit or namespace, that groups related functionality behind a defined interface.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware package
German: Softwarepaket
In software distribution, a software package is an archive containing software files together with metadata such as name, version, dependencies and installation instructions, installable by a package manager or installer.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware platform
German: Softwareplattform
In software engineering, a software platform is a base of software, such as an operating system, runtime, framework or cloud service, on which applications are developed and run and which offers them common services through defined interfaces.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware release
German: Softwarefreigabe
In software engineering, a software release is a formally approved, identified version of software that is made available to users or for deployment, together with its documentation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSoftware watchdog
German: Software-Watchdog
In embedded and control software, a software watchdog is a monitoring function implemented in software that checks whether tasks or processes run and respond within expected time limits and triggers a defined reaction, such as an alarm, restart or safe state, when they do not.
Software engineering · Functional safety
Definition and examplesSoftware-in-the-loop test
German: Software-in-the-Loop-Test
In control software development, a software-in-the-loop test runs the compiled control software on a host computer against a simulation of the controlled system, without the target hardware, to verify its behavior early.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSource code
German: Quellcode
In software engineering, source code is the human-readable form of a program, written in a programming language such as C, Python or the IEC 61131-3 languages, from which object code or executables are generated.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSource code repository
German: Quellcode-Repository
In software engineering, a source code repository is a storage location managed by a version control system that holds source files and their complete change history.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSource compatibility
German: Quellcodekompatibilität
In software engineering, source compatibility is the property that code written against one version of a library, API or language still compiles without changes against a newer version.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesStack overflow
German: Stapelspeicherüberlauf
In programming, a stack overflow is an error in which a program uses more stack memory than is reserved for it, for example through deep recursion or large local variables, overwriting adjacent memory or triggering an exception.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesStarvation
German: Verhungern eines Prozesses
In concurrent computing, starvation is a condition in which a task or process is ready to run or waiting for a resource but is repeatedly denied it, for example because higher-priority tasks always take precedence.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesState pattern
German: Zustandsmuster
In software design, the state pattern is a design pattern in which an object delegates its state-dependent behavior to separate state objects, changing its behavior by switching the current state object.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesStatic code analysis
German: Statische Codeanalyse
In software verification, static code analysis is the automated examination of source or object code without executing it, to find defects, rule violations, security vulnerabilities and quality issues.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesStrategy pattern
German: Strategiemuster
In software design, the strategy pattern is a design pattern that defines a family of interchangeable algorithms behind a common interface, so the algorithm used can be selected at run time without changing the code that uses it.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesStructured logging
German: Strukturierte Protokollierung
In software operations, structured logging is the practice of writing log entries as machine-readable records with named fields, such as timestamp, severity, component and event data, instead of free-text lines.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesSystem test
German: Systemtest
In software and systems engineering, a system test is a test of the complete, integrated system against its specified requirements, performed in an environment as close as possible to the intended operating environment.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTask scheduler
German: Task-Scheduler
In operating systems and runtime environments, a task scheduler is the component that decides which task or thread runs on a processor at a given time, according to a scheduling policy such as fixed priorities, time slices or deadlines.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTechnical debt
German: Technische Schulden
In software engineering, technical debt is the future cost of rework caused by choosing an expedient solution now instead of a better one, for example skipped tests, duplicated code, outdated dependencies or missing documentation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTest double
German: Test-Dummy
In software testing, a test double is any object or component that replaces a real dependency during a test, such as a dummy, stub, fake, spy or mock, so the code under test can be tested in isolation.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTest fixture
German: Test-Fixture
In software testing, a test fixture is the fixed, known state and set of objects or data that tests require, set up before each test and cleaned up afterward so that tests are repeatable.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTest harness
German: Testumgebung
In software testing, a test harness is the collection of software, drivers, stubs and configuration used to run tests on a unit or system, supply inputs, capture outputs and compare them with expected results.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTest pipeline
German: Test-Pipeline
In continuous integration, a test pipeline is an automated sequence of test stages, such as static analysis, unit tests, integration tests and simulation tests, that runs on each change and reports whether it passes.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesThread
German: Thread
In computing, a thread is the smallest unit of execution that an operating system schedules, running within a process and sharing that process's memory and resources with its other threads.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesThread safety
German: Thread-Sicherheit
In concurrent programming, thread safety is the property of code or data structures to behave correctly when accessed by several threads at the same time, without race conditions or corrupted state.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTight coupling
German: Enge Kopplung
In software and systems design, tight coupling is a high degree of dependency between components, such that a change in one component frequently requires changes in others or they cannot be used or tested separately.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTime-triggered execution
German: Zeitgesteuerte Ausführung
In real-time systems, time-triggered execution is an execution model in which tasks or communications are started at predefined points in time from a global schedule, rather than in response to events.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesTransitive dependency
German: Transitive Abhängigkeit
In software engineering, a transitive dependency is a dependency that a project does not declare directly but receives because one of its direct dependencies requires it.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesUnit test
German: Modultest
In software testing, a unit test is an automated test that checks the behavior of the smallest testable part of a program, such as a function, method or function block, in isolation from its dependencies.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesVersion control system
German: Versionsverwaltungssystem
In software engineering, a version control system is a tool that records changes to files over time, so that specific versions can be retrieved, changes compared and parallel work on branches merged.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesVirtual machine (VM)
German: Virtuelle Maschine (VM)
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is a software emulation of a complete computer, with its own virtual processor, memory, storage and network interfaces, on which an operating system and applications run isolated from other VMs on the same physical host.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesVirtualization
German: Virtualisierung
In computing, virtualization is the abstraction of physical resources such as processors, memory, storage or networks, so that several isolated virtual instances can share one physical system or one virtual resource can span several physical ones.
Software engineering
Definition and examplesAI usage telemetry
German: Telemetriedaten zur KI-Nutzung
In software engineering, AI usage telemetry is measurement data about how AI tools are used in a development or authoring organization: which tools and models are called, in which repositories or projects, at what volume, and how often proposed output is accepted, edited or discarded. Organizations collect it for license management, adoption reporting, cost control and oversight of AI-assisted work. Whether such data may be collected and evaluated per individual person is not a technical question but a legal one, decided by data protection law, labor law and — in Germany — by co-determination of the works council.
Software engineering · Technical documentation
Definition and examplesDefect triage
German: Fehlertriage
In software engineering, defect triage is the process of reviewing incoming defect reports and deciding for each one whether it is valid and reproducible, how severe its impact is and how urgent the work on it is, which component and team it belongs to, and when it will be addressed. The decision is recorded in the issue tracker as a set of fields — state, severity, priority, component, owner, target release — so that later work and reporting can rely on it. Triage is a management decision about work, not a technical fix: it neither changes the product nor explains the cause. The term itself is not defined in a standard; the attributes it assigns, such as severity and priority, correspond to the anomaly classification attributes described in IEEE Std 1044.
Software engineering · Technical documentation · Validation
Definition and examplesWorst-case execution time (WCET)
German: Maximale Ausführungszeit (WCET)
In real-time systems, the worst-case execution time (WCET) is the longest time a task or piece of code can take to execute on a given hardware platform, considering all possible inputs and execution paths.
Software engineering
Definition and examples
System coordination, integration and orchestration
Acknowledgment signal
German: Quittierungssignal
In industrial automation, an acknowledgment signal is a signal or message by which a receiving system confirms that it has received a request, command or data item from a sending system. It closes one step of a handshake so the sender knows it may proceed.
System integration
Definition and examplesActive-active redundancy
German: Aktiv-Aktiv-Redundanz
In system architecture, active-active redundancy is a redundancy scheme in which two or more redundant nodes run and serve requests at the same time. If one node fails, the remaining nodes carry the load without a switchover to a standby unit.
System integration
Definition and examplesActive-standby redundancy
German: Aktiv-Standby-Redundanz
In system architecture, active-standby redundancy is a redundancy scheme in which one unit performs the function while a second unit is kept ready and takes over only when the active unit fails. The standby may be hot (synchronized and running), warm or cold.
System integration
Definition and examplesAllocation relationship
OMG SysMLGerman: Allokationsbeziehung
In SysML, an allocation relationship is a dependency that assigns one model element to another across different structures or levels, for example a function or activity to the block that performs it, or a logical element to a physical one.
System integration · Standards
Definition and examplesAPI gateway
German: API-Gateway
In software architecture, an API gateway is a service that acts as the single entry point for client requests to a set of backend services, routing each request and typically handling authentication, rate limiting, protocol translation and logging.
System integration · OT security
Definition and examplesArea controller
German: Bereichssteuerung
In industrial automation, an area controller is a control system that coordinates the lines, cells or units within one production area of a site, corresponding to the area level of the ISA-95 / IEC 62264 equipment hierarchy. It sits between the site-level systems and the line or cell controllers.
System integration
Definition and examplesAxis coordination
German: Achskoordination
In motion control, axis coordination is the synchronized control of two or more drive axes so that their positions, velocities or accelerations follow a common motion profile, for example in electronic gearing, camming or interpolated path motion.
System integration
Definition and examplesBlocked state
German: Blockierzustand
In production line coordination, a blocked state is the condition of a machine or station that cannot release its output because the downstream machine or buffer is not ready to accept it. The machine itself is ready to work but must wait.
System integration
Definition and examplesBlocking signal
German: Sperrsignal
In industrial automation, a blocking signal is a signal by which one system prevents another system or function from starting or continuing a defined action until a condition is cleared. It is an operational coordination signal, not by itself a safety function.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Bottleneck coordination
German: Engpasskoordination
In production control, bottleneck coordination is the practice of controlling a line or plant so that its capacity-limiting station runs as continuously as possible, by keeping buffers before it filled, buffers after it available and other stations paced to it.
System integration
Definition and examples Business process engine
German: Geschäftsprozess-Engine
In enterprise software, a business process engine is a software component that executes modeled business processes, for example in BPMN, by creating process instances, assigning tasks, calling services and tracking the state of each instance.
System integration
Definition and examplesBusy signal
German: Belegtsignal
In industrial automation, a busy signal is a status signal by which a system indicates that it is currently executing a task and cannot accept a new request. It is typically set when a request is accepted and reset when the task is finished or aborted.
System integration
Definition and examplesCanonical data model
German: Kanonisches Datenmodell
In systems integration, a canonical data model is a shared, application-independent data model that all integrated systems map to and from, so that each system needs one mapping to the canonical model instead of a separate mapping to every other system.
System integration
Definition and examplesCapability discovery
German: Fähigkeitserkennung
In systems integration, capability discovery is the process by which a system finds out at run time which functions, services, data or parameters another system offers, instead of relying only on configuration fixed at design time.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Capacity coordination
German: Kapazitätskoordination
In production planning and control, capacity coordination is the alignment of the load placed on machines, lines, labor and shared resources with their available capacity over a planning horizon, so that orders can be completed on time without overloading any resource.
System integration
Definition and examples Causal ordering
German: Kausale Ordnung
In distributed systems, causal ordering is a guarantee that if one event can have influenced another, for example because a message was sent after the first event was observed, every participant processes the two events in that order. Events without such a relationship may be seen in different orders.
System integration
Definition and examplesCell controller
German: Zellensteuerung
In industrial automation, a cell controller is a control system that coordinates the machines, robots and devices of one manufacturing cell, managing sequence, material handover and status exchange with the line or area level.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Cell coordination
German: Zellenkoordination
In manufacturing automation, cell coordination is the run-time coordination of the machines, robots, fixtures and operators within one cell, so that their tasks follow the intended sequence, share resources without conflict and hand over parts correctly.
System integration
Definition and examples Centralized control
German: Zentrale Steuerung
In control system architecture, centralized control is an approach in which one controller or control center makes the control decisions for a whole machine, line or plant, while field devices mainly provide inputs and execute commands.
System integration
Definition and examplesChange data capture (CDC)
German: Änderungsdatenerfassung (CDC)
In data integration, change data capture (CDC) is a technique that detects inserts, updates and deletes in a source database, typically by reading its transaction log, and delivers them as a stream of change events to other systems.
System integration
Definition and examplesCompensating transaction
German: Kompensationstransaktion
In distributed systems, a compensating transaction is an operation that semantically undoes the effect of a previously completed step when a later step of a multi-step process fails, used where a single atomic transaction across all systems is not possible.
System integration
Definition and examplesCompletion signal
German: Fertigmeldung
In industrial automation, a completion signal is a signal or message by which a system reports that a requested task or step has been finished, often together with a result status such as success or failure.
System integration
Definition and examplesConflict resolution
German: Konfliktauflösung
In systems coordination and data integration, conflict resolution is the set of rules that decides what happens when two or more participants make incompatible requests or changes, for example two controllers requesting the same resource or two systems updating the same data item.
System integration
Definition and examplesConsistency model
German: Konsistenzmodell
In distributed systems, a consistency model is a contract that specifies which values a reader may observe after writes to replicated or shared data, ranging from strong consistency, where every read sees the latest write, to weaker models such as causal or eventual consistency.
System integration
Definition and examplesContent-based routing
German: Inhaltsbasiertes Routing
In systems integration, content-based routing is a messaging pattern in which an intermediary inspects the content of each message, such as a message type, product code or plant ID, and forwards it to the recipient or channel determined by rules.
System integration
Definition and examplesControlled stop
IEC 60204-1German: Gesteuerter Stopp
In IEC 60204-1, a controlled stop is the stopping of machine motion by reducing the command signal to zero once the stop signal has been recognized by the control, while power to the machine actuators is retained during the stopping process.
System integration · Standards · Functional safety
Definition and examplesCoordinated restart
German: Koordinierter Wiederanlauf
In production line control, a coordinated restart is the controlled resumption of operation of several interconnected machines after a stop, in a defined order and only after each machine has confirmed a consistent, ready state.
System integration
Definition and examplesCoordinated stop
German: Koordinierter Stopp
In production line control, a coordinated stop is the stopping of several interconnected machines in a defined sequence and timing, so that product, material and tools are left in a consistent state from which the line can restart.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Coordination controller
German: Koordinationssteuerung
In industrial automation, a coordination controller is a controller whose main task is to coordinate other controllers or machines, for example by distributing orders, synchronizing sequences and managing shared resources, rather than controlling actuators directly.
System integration
Definition and examples - Working term
Coordination logic
German: Koordinationslogik
In control software, coordination logic is the part of a program that governs the interaction between machines, stations or functions, for example handshakes, resource reservations and synchronization of sequences, as opposed to the logic that controls individual actuators.
System integration
Definition and examples Data mapping
German: Datenabbildung
In data integration, data mapping is the specification of how data elements of a source structure correspond to data elements of a target structure, including field correspondences, unit and format conversions and rules for missing or unmapped values.
System integration
Definition and examplesData orchestration
German: Datenorchestrierung
In data engineering, data orchestration is the automated coordination of data movement and processing steps across systems, including scheduling, dependency handling, retries and monitoring, so that data arrives complete and in the right order where it is needed.
System integration
Definition and examplesData replication
German: Datenreplikation
In information systems, data replication is the copying and ongoing updating of data from one storage location or system to one or more others, to increase availability, bring data closer to its consumers or protect against the loss of a single copy.
System integration
Definition and examplesData synchronization
German: Datensynchronisierung
In systems integration, data synchronization is the process of bringing data held in two or more systems into agreement, by exchanging changes and resolving conflicts, so that each system has a consistent view of the shared data.
System integration
Definition and examplesData transformation
German: Datentransformation
In data integration, data transformation is the conversion of data from one structure, format, unit or granularity into another, for example by mapping fields, converting units, aggregating values or enriching records with data from other sources.
System integration
Definition and examplesDecentralized control
German: Dezentrale Steuerung
In control system architecture, decentralized control is an approach in which control decisions are made by several local controllers, each responsible for its own section of a machine or plant, with limited coordination between them.
System integration
Definition and examplesDispatch rule
German: Dispositionsregel
In production scheduling, a dispatch rule is a rule that determines which waiting job a free resource processes next, based on attributes such as arrival order, due date, processing time or priority.
System integration
Definition and examplesDistributed clock
German: Verteilte Uhr
In industrial communication, a distributed clock is a mechanism that keeps local clocks in several network devices synchronized to a common reference so that inputs can be sampled and outputs applied at the same instant; EtherCAT, for example, uses distributed clocks to synchronize its devices.
System integration
Definition and examplesDistributed consensus
German: Verteilter Konsens
In distributed systems, distributed consensus is the problem, and the family of algorithms such as Paxos and Raft that solve it, of getting several nodes to agree on a single value or sequence of decisions even when some nodes fail or messages are delayed.
System integration
Definition and examplesDistributed control
German: Verteilte Steuerung
In control system architecture, distributed control is an approach in which control functions are spread over several networked controllers located close to the process, each executing part of the control task, while operation, engineering and coordination are typically provided centrally.
System integration · Process industry
Definition and examplesDistributed transaction
German: Verteilte Transaktion
In distributed systems, a distributed transaction is a transaction that updates data in two or more independent systems or databases so that either all updates take effect or none do, typically coordinated by a protocol such as two-phase commit.
System integration
Definition and examplesDownstream blocking
German: Blockierung durch nachgelagerte Station
In production line coordination, downstream blocking is the situation in which a machine must stop or wait because the machine or buffer after it cannot accept more product, so that the stoppage propagates upstream along the line.
System integration
Definition and examplesDownstream machine
German: Nachgelagerte Maschine
In production lines, a downstream machine is a machine that comes after a given machine in the direction of material flow and receives its output, directly or through a buffer.
System integration
Definition and examplesEarliest due date (EDD)
German: Frühester Fälligkeitstermin (EDD)
In production scheduling, earliest due date (EDD) is a dispatch rule that processes waiting jobs in order of their due dates, starting with the job due first. On a single machine it minimizes the maximum lateness of the jobs.
System integration
Definition and examplesEdge gateway
German: Edge-Gateway
In industrial IoT, an edge gateway is a device or software runtime at the boundary between field level and higher-level networks that collects data from machines and field devices, converts protocols, preprocesses data and forwards it to plant, enterprise or cloud systems.
System integration · OT security
Definition and examplesEdge orchestration
German: Edge-Orchestrierung
In industrial IT, edge orchestration is the centralized deployment, configuration, updating and monitoring of applications and containers running on distributed edge devices, often using container orchestration technology adapted to plant conditions.
System integration
Definition and examplesEnd-to-end test
German: End-to-End-Test
In software and systems engineering, an end-to-end test is a test that exercises a complete workflow through all involved systems and interfaces, from the initial input to the final result, under conditions close to real operation.
System integration
Definition and examplesEndpoint discovery
OPC 10000-12German: Endpunkterkennung
In systems integration, endpoint discovery is the process by which a client finds the network addresses, protocols and security settings of the servers or services it can connect to, for example through a discovery server or directory; OPC UA defines discovery services for this purpose.
System integration
Definition and examplesEnterprise service bus (ESB)
German: Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
In enterprise integration, an enterprise service bus (ESB) is a middleware architecture in which applications communicate through a common integration infrastructure that provides message routing, transformation, protocol mediation and service orchestration.
System integration
Definition and examplesEvent broker
German: Event Broker
In software architecture, an event broker is middleware that receives events from producers and delivers them to interested consumers, typically through publish-subscribe topics, decoupling producers from consumers in time, location and number.
System integration
Definition and examplesEvent ordering
German: Ereignisreihenfolge
In distributed and event-driven systems, event ordering is the guarantee, or the lack of it, that events are delivered to and processed by consumers in a defined order, such as the order in which they were produced by one source or in causal order.
System integration
Definition and examplesEvent routing
German: Ereignisrouting
In event-driven systems, event routing is the forwarding of events from their sources to the consumers or channels that should receive them, based on topics, subscriptions, event types or event content.
System integration
Definition and examplesEventual consistency
German: Eventuelle Konsistenz
In distributed systems, eventual consistency is a consistency model in which replicas of data may temporarily differ after an update, but converge to the same value if no new updates are made for long enough.
System integration
Definition and examplesExternal system
German: Externes System
In systems engineering, an external system is a system outside the boundary of the system of interest that interacts with it through defined interfaces, and whose behavior the system of interest can rely on only to the extent agreed in those interfaces.
System integration
Definition and examplesFailover
German: Failover
In high-availability systems, failover is the automatic or manual transfer of a function, service or workload from a failed or unavailable component to a redundant standby component, so that the function continues with minimal interruption.
System integration
Definition and examplesFirst in, first out (FIFO)
German: First In, First Out (FIFO)
In computing and production logistics, first in, first out (FIFO) is an ordering principle in which items are processed or removed in the same order in which they arrived, so that the oldest item is always handled next.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Fleet coordination
German: Flottenkoordination
In intralogistics and robotics, fleet coordination is the central or distributed coordination of several mobile robots or vehicles, such as AGVs and AMRs, including task assignment, route planning, traffic control at shared areas and charging management.
System integration
Definition and examples Function allocation
German: Funktionszuordnung
In systems engineering, function allocation is the assignment of system functions to the elements that will perform them, such as hardware, software, people or external systems, as part of architecture definition.
System integration
Definition and examplesFunctional architecture
German: Funktionale Architektur
In systems engineering, a functional architecture is a description of a system in terms of the functions it must perform, their decomposition into subfunctions and the flows of material, energy and information between them, independent of how the functions are implemented.
System integration
Definition and examplesGateway redundancy
German: Gateway-Redundanz
In networking and integration, gateway redundancy is the provision of two or more gateways for the same connection, such as a router, protocol converter or edge gateway, so that communication continues when one gateway fails, often using protocols such as VRRP for routers.
System integration
Definition and examplesGlobal time base
German: Globale Zeitbasis
In distributed automation systems, a global time base is a common time reference to which the clocks of all participating devices are synchronized, for example via the Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588) or NTP, so that timestamps and time-triggered actions are comparable across devices.
System integration
Definition and examplesHandover point
German: Übergabepunkt
In production and system integration, a handover point is the defined physical or logical location at which material, data or responsibility passes from one machine, system or party to another.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Handover protocol
German: Übergabeprotokoll
In production line integration, a handover protocol is the agreed sequence of signals, messages and checks by which two machines or systems transfer a product, carrier or task, so that both sides know at every moment who is responsible for it.
System integration
Definition and examples Handshake
German: Handshake
In automation and communication, a handshake is an exchange of signals or messages between two systems in which each step is confirmed by the partner before the next step begins, so that both sides stay synchronized.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Handshake programming
German: Handshake-Programmierung
In control software engineering, handshake programming is the implementation of handshake sequences in PLC or controller code, typically as state machines that set request signals, wait for acknowledgments, supervise timeouts and handle aborts.
System integration
Definition and examples Hardware-software allocation
German: Hardware-Software-Zuordnung
In systems engineering, hardware-software allocation is the decision about which functions of a system are realized in hardware and which in software, and on which hardware units each software component runs.
System integration
Definition and examplesHeartbeat
German: Heartbeat
In automation and distributed systems, a heartbeat is a periodic signal or message that a system sends to show that it is running and able to communicate, for example a toggling bit, an incrementing counter or a keep-alive message.
System integration
Definition and examplesHeartbeat monitoring
German: Heartbeat-Überwachung
In automation and distributed systems, heartbeat monitoring is the supervision of a partner's heartbeat signal, in which the absence of an expected heartbeat within a defined time is treated as a failure of the partner or of the communication path and triggers a defined reaction.
System integration
Definition and examplesHierarchical control
German: Hierarchische Steuerung
In automation architecture, hierarchical control is an approach in which control functions are arranged in levels, such as enterprise, site, area, line or cell and device, where each level coordinates the level below it and reports to the level above, as reflected in the ISA-95 / IEC 62264 models.
System integration · Standards
Definition and examplesHigh availability cluster
German: Hochverfügbarkeitscluster
In IT and OT infrastructure, a high availability cluster is a group of servers that monitor each other and run services redundantly, so that a service moves to another node or continues on remaining nodes when one node fails.
System integration
Definition and examplesIdentity mapping
German: Identitätsabbildung
In systems integration, identity mapping is the maintained correspondence between the identifiers that different systems use for the same real-world object, such as a material, machine, order or user, so that records can be matched across systems.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration architecture
German: Integrationsarchitektur
In enterprise and plant IT, integration architecture is the structure of how systems exchange data and invoke each other's functions, including integration styles, middleware components, interfaces, data models and the principles governing them.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration baseline
German: Integrationsbasis
In systems engineering, an integration baseline is a defined, approved set of system element versions, configurations and interface definitions that are integrated and tested together and serve as the reference for further integration or changes.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration broker
German: Integrationsbroker
In systems integration, an integration broker is a middleware component that mediates between applications by receiving messages, transforming and routing them, and delivering them to target applications, following a hub-and-spoke model.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration endpoint
German: Integrationsendpunkt
In systems integration, an integration endpoint is an addressable access point of a system through which other systems send or receive data or invoke functions, defined by an address, a protocol, a data format and security settings.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration layer
German: Integrationsschicht
In system architecture, an integration layer is the architectural layer between applications or between plant and enterprise systems that handles communication, data transformation, routing and access to shared services, so that applications are not directly coupled to each other.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration pattern
German: Integrationsmuster
In software architecture, an integration pattern is a proven, named solution to a recurring problem in connecting systems, such as publish-subscribe, request-reply, content-based router, message translator or saga.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration platform
German: Integrationsplattform
In enterprise IT, an integration platform is a software product or set of services that provides tools and runtime components for building, running and monitoring integrations, such as connectors, mapping tools, routing, orchestration and API management.
System integration
Definition and examplesIntegration service
German: Integrationsdienst
In systems integration, an integration service is a software service that performs a specific integration task, such as connecting to a system, transforming data, synchronizing records or exposing a system's functions through a standard interface.
System integration
Definition and examplesInterface definition
German: Schnittstellendefinition
In systems engineering and integration, an interface definition is the description of an interface between two systems or components, stating the exchanged data, signals or services, their formats, timing, protocols and the behavior expected from each side.
System integration · Technical documentation
Definition and examples- Working term
Interface handshake
German: Schnittstellen-Handshake
In system integration, an interface handshake is a handshake defined as part of a specific interface between two systems, specifying the request, acknowledgment and completion signals or messages that both sides must exchange for a given interaction.
System integration
Definition and examples Interface management
German: Schnittstellenmanagement
In systems engineering, interface management is the set of activities that identify, define, control and verify the interfaces between system elements and with external systems throughout the life cycle, including assigning responsibilities and managing interface changes.
System integration
Definition and examplesInterface ownership
German: Schnittstellenverantwortung
In systems engineering and projects, interface ownership is the assignment of a responsible person or party for an interface, who ensures that it is defined, agreed, controlled, implemented and verified by all parties involved.
System integration
Definition and examplesInterface test
German: Schnittstellentest
In software and systems engineering, an interface test is a test that verifies that two systems or components interact across their interface as defined, including data content, formats, timing, handshakes and behavior under error conditions.
System integration
Definition and examplesJob scheduling
German: Auftragsplanung
In production and computing, job scheduling is the planning of when and on which resources a set of jobs or orders will be processed, taking into account capacities, due dates, setup times, priorities and constraints.
System integration
Definition and examplesLast in, first out (LIFO)
German: Last In, First Out (LIFO)
In computing and logistics, last in, first out (LIFO) is an ordering principle in which the most recently added item is processed or removed first, as in a stack.
System integration
Definition and examplesLeader election
German: Leader-Wahl
In distributed systems, leader election is the process by which a group of nodes chooses one node as coordinator (leader) for a task, and chooses a new one when the leader fails, so that exactly one node acts as leader at a time.
System integration
Definition and examplesLease (distributed systems)
German: Lease
In distributed systems, a lease is a time-limited right granted to a node, for example to hold a lock, act as leader or cache data, which expires automatically unless it is renewed before a defined deadline.
System integration
Definition and examplesLine balancing
German: Linienabgleich
In production engineering, line balancing is the distribution of work content across the stations of a production or assembly line so that each station's work time is as close as possible to the required cycle time, minimizing idle time and bottlenecks.
System integration
Definition and examplesLine controller
German: Liniensteuerung
In industrial automation, a line controller is a control system that coordinates the machines of a production line, for example by distributing orders and recipes, pacing machines, managing line starts and stops and collecting status and performance data.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Line coordination
German: Linienkoordination
In production line control, line coordination is the run-time coordination of the machines of a line, including start and stop sequences, speed adjustment, product handover, format changes and reaction to faults, so that the line works as one system.
System integration
Definition and examples Line stop
German: Linienstopp
In production operations, a line stop is the stopping of an entire production line, triggered by an operator, a quality or material problem, a machine fault or a line-level command, as opposed to the stopping of a single machine.
System integration
Definition and examplesLoad balancing
German: Lastverteilung
In computing and production systems, load balancing is the distribution of requests, tasks or material flow across several equivalent resources, so that no single resource is overloaded and overall throughput and availability improve.
System integration
Definition and examplesLogical architecture
German: Logische Architektur
In systems engineering, a logical architecture is a description of a system as a set of logical components, their responsibilities and the interfaces between them, independent of the specific hardware, software products or technologies used to implement them.
System integration
Definition and examplesLogical clock
German: Logische Uhr
In distributed systems, a logical clock is a counter-based mechanism that assigns numbers to events so that their causal order can be determined without synchronized physical clocks; Lamport clocks and vector clocks are common forms.
System integration
Definition and examplesMachine controller
German: Maschinensteuerung
In industrial automation, a machine controller is the control device or control system that runs the logic, motion and interlocks of a single machine, typically a PLC, industrial PC or motion controller with its I/O. It receives commands from a line or plant controller and reports its states back.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Machine coordination
German: Maschinenkoordination
In industrial automation, machine coordination is the exchange of states, requests and permissions between machines so that they work together as a line or cell without collisions, starvation or blocking. It is implemented through handshakes, shared state models and a supervisory or peer-to-peer logic.
System integration
Definition and examples Machine handshake
German: Maschinen-Handshake
In industrial automation, a machine handshake is a defined sequence of signals between two machines or controllers, such as ready, request, acknowledge and done, that confirms each step of an interaction like a part transfer before the next step starts.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Machine orchestration
German: Maschinenorchestrierung
In industrial automation, machine orchestration is the central, software-driven control of several machines, in which an orchestrating instance decides which machine performs which task, in which order and with which parameters, based on orders, recipes and machine states.
System integration
Definition and examples Master-data synchronization
German: Stammdatensynchronisierung
In enterprise and manufacturing IT, master-data synchronization is the process of keeping master data, such as materials, bills of materials, recipes, equipment and customers, consistent across systems like ERP, PLM, MES and machine controllers.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Material-flow coordination
German: Materialflusskoordination
In manufacturing and intralogistics, material-flow coordination is the planning and control of how materials, parts and products move between stations, buffers and storage, so that each station receives what it needs at the right time without congestion.
System integration
Definition and examples Message broker
German: Message Broker
In software architecture, a message broker is a middleware component that receives messages from producers and delivers them to consumers, decoupling them in time and location, usually through topics or queues with publish/subscribe or point-to-point semantics.
System integration
Definition and examplesMessage routing
German: Nachrichtenrouting
In software and communication architecture, message routing is the determination of the path or recipients of a message, based on addresses, topics, content or rules, so that each message reaches the components that need it.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Mode coordination
German: Betriebsartenkoordination
In industrial automation, mode coordination is the alignment of the operating modes of several machines or units, so that combinations of modes across a line or plant are permitted, consistent and safe, for example preventing one machine from running automatically while a neighbor is in setup mode with an operator inside.
System integration
Definition and examples Mode transition
German: Betriebsartenübergang
In industrial automation, a mode transition is the change of a machine or system from one operating mode to another, for example from automatic to setup mode, including the conditions that must be met and the actions performed during the change.
System integration
Definition and examplesMulti-axis coordination
German: Mehrachskoordination
In motion control, multi-axis coordination is the synchronized control of several drive axes so that their combined movement follows a defined path, profile or ratio, as in interpolated CNC paths, electronic gearing or electronic cams.
System integration
Definition and examplesMulti-robot coordination
German: Mehrroboterkoordination
In robotics, multi-robot coordination is the planning and control of several robots working in the same cell or area, so that they share work and space without collisions or deadlocks, either through a central controller or through signal exchange between robot controllers.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Mutual exclusion zone
German: Gegenseitige Ausschlusszone
In robotics and automation, a mutual exclusion zone is a defined spatial area that only one machine, robot or carrier may occupy at a time; access is granted through a request and release mechanism, similar to a lock in software.
System integration
Definition and examples Operating-mode management
German: Betriebsartenverwaltung
In industrial automation, operating-mode management is the function of a control system that handles the selection, authorization, indication and transitions of operating modes, and enables or disables machine functions according to the active mode.
System integration
Definition and examplesOrchestration
German: Orchestrierung
In software and automation architecture, orchestration is the coordination of several services, machines or processes by a central controlling instance, the orchestrator, which invokes them in a defined order, passes data between them and handles errors.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Permission signal
German: Freigabesignal
In industrial automation, a permission signal is a signal by which one machine, controller or operator allows another to perform an action, such as entering a shared area, taking over a part or starting a sequence; without it, the action must not start.
System integration
Definition and examples Physical architecture
German: Physische Architektur
In systems engineering, the physical architecture is the arrangement of the physical elements of a system, such as hardware, software units, devices and their connections, that implements the functions defined in the functional or logical architecture.
System integration
Definition and examplesPlant controller
German: Anlagensteuerung
In industrial automation, a plant controller is the control system at plant or line level that coordinates several machines, units or process cells, for example by distributing orders and recipes, synchronizing modes and states, and collecting data for higher-level systems.
System integration
Definition and examplesPlug and produce
German: Plug and Produce
In industrial automation, plug and produce is the ability to add, replace or reconfigure a machine, module or device in a production system with minimal manual engineering, because the component describes itself and the system detects, configures and integrates it largely automatically.
System integration
Definition and examplesPriority rule
German: Prioritätsregel
In production scheduling and automation, a priority rule is a rule that decides which of several waiting jobs, requests or tasks is served next by a resource, for example first in, first out, earliest due date or shortest processing time.
System integration
Definition and examplesProduction dispatching
ISA-95 / IEC 62264-3German: Produktionsdisposition
In manufacturing operations management (ISA-95 / IEC 62264), production dispatching is the activity of releasing scheduled production work to specific resources, such as work centers, lines or machines, at the right time and in the right order, taking current availability into account.
System integration · Standards
Definition and examples- Working term
Production orchestration
German: Produktionsorchestrierung
In manufacturing, production orchestration is the central, software-based coordination of machines, people, material flow and IT systems along a production process, so that orders are executed end to end according to a defined workflow.
System integration
Definition and examples Protocol conversion
German: Protokollkonvertierung
In industrial communication, protocol conversion is the translation of data and services from one communication protocol to another, for example from Modbus RTU to OPC UA or from PROFINET to EtherNet/IP, so that devices using different protocols can exchange information.
System integration
Definition and examplesProtocol gateway
German: Protokoll-Gateway
In industrial communication, a protocol gateway is a device or software component that connects networks or devices using different communication protocols and performs protocol conversion between them.
System integration
Definition and examplesQueue discipline
German: Warteschlangendisziplin
In queueing theory and system design, the queue discipline is the rule that determines the order in which waiting items, such as jobs, messages or requests, are taken from a queue for service, for example first in, first out (FIFO), last in, first out (LIFO) or priority-based.
System integration
Definition and examplesQuorum
German: Quorum
In distributed systems, a quorum is the minimum number of nodes, usually a majority, that must agree or respond before an operation, such as a write or a leader election, is considered valid; it ensures that two conflicting decisions cannot both succeed.
System integration
Definition and examplesRACI matrix
German: RACI-Matrix
In project and process management, a RACI matrix is a responsibility matrix that assigns, for each task or deliverable, who is Responsible (does the work), Accountable (owns the result and approves), Consulted (gives input) and Informed (is kept up to date).
System integration
Definition and examplesReady signal
German: Bereitsignal
In industrial automation, a ready signal is a status signal by which a machine, device or controller indicates that it is able to perform a defined action or accept a request, for example that it is powered, error-free, in the correct mode and in its start position.
System integration
Definition and examplesReplication lag
German: Replikationsverzögerung
In distributed systems and databases, replication lag is the delay between a change being made on a primary node and the same change becoming visible on a replica; during this time, readers of the replica see outdated data.
System integration
Definition and examplesRequest signal
German: Anforderungssignal
In industrial automation, a request signal is a signal by which a machine, controller or operator asks another party to perform an action or grant access, such as requesting a part, a transfer or entry into a shared zone; the request is answered by an acknowledgment, permission or rejection.
System integration
Definition and examplesRequirements allocation
German: Anforderungszuordnung
In systems engineering, requirements allocation is the assignment of system requirements, or portions of them, to the elements of the system architecture, such as subsystems, hardware, software or people, which then become responsible for satisfying them.
System integration
Definition and examplesResource allocation
German: Ressourcenzuteilung
In automation, production and computing, resource allocation is the assignment of limited resources, such as machines, tools, operators, memory or network bandwidth, to tasks or processes that need them, according to rules, priorities and availability.
System integration
Definition and examplesResource arbitration
German: Ressourcenarbitrierung
In automation and computing, resource arbitration is the mechanism that decides which of several simultaneous requesters is granted access to a shared resource, for example by priority, round robin or first come, first served, so that only one requester uses it at a time.
System integration
Definition and examplesResource contention
German: Ressourcenkonflikt
In automation and computing, resource contention is the situation in which several tasks, machines or processes compete for the same limited resource at the same time, which leads to waiting, reduced throughput or, without proper coordination, conflicts and deadlocks.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Resource coordination
German: Ressourcenkoordination
In automation and production systems, resource coordination is the overall management of shared resources, including their allocation, arbitration, locking, reservation and release, so that tasks and machines can use them efficiently and without conflicts.
System integration
Definition and examples Resource lock
German: Ressourcensperre
In automation and software, a resource lock is a mechanism that gives one task, machine or process exclusive use of a shared resource until it releases it; other requesters must wait or are rejected while the lock is held.
System integration
Definition and examplesResource release
German: Ressourcenfreigabe
In automation and software, resource release is the act by which a task, machine or process gives up a shared resource it held, making it available to other requesters; it ends a lock or reservation.
System integration
Definition and examplesResource reservation
German: Ressourcenreservierung
In automation, production and computing, resource reservation is the advance booking of a resource for a future task or time window, so that it is guaranteed to be available when needed and is not allocated to other requesters in the meantime.
System integration
Definition and examplesResponsibility matrix
German: Verantwortungsmatrix
In project and process management, a responsibility matrix is a table that maps tasks, deliverables or decisions to roles or organizations and states the type of involvement of each, making responsibilities explicit at interfaces.
System integration
Definition and examplesRestart sequence
German: Wiederanlaufsequenz
In industrial automation, a restart sequence is the defined series of steps by which a machine or plant resumes operation after a stop, fault, power loss or emergency stop, bringing all parts back to a consistent state before production continues.
System integration
Definition and examplesRobot coordination
German: Roboterkoordination
In robotics and automation, robot coordination is the alignment of a robot's motions and tasks with other equipment, such as conveyors, machines, other robots or people, through signals, shared zones, synchronized motion and task scheduling.
System integration
Definition and examplesRules engine
German: Regel-Engine
In software engineering, a rules engine is a software component that evaluates a set of declarative rules (conditions and actions) against incoming data or events and executes the actions of the rules whose conditions are met, keeping decision logic separate from application code.
System integration
Definition and examplesSaga pattern
German: Saga-Muster
In distributed software architecture, the saga pattern manages a business transaction that spans several services as a sequence of local transactions, each followed by the next; if a step fails, previously completed steps are undone by compensating transactions instead of a global rollback.
System integration
Definition and examplesSchema mapping
German: Schemaabbildung
In data integration, schema mapping is the specification of how the elements of one data schema correspond to the elements of another, including transformations of names, structures, data types and units, so that data can be exchanged or merged between systems.
System integration
Definition and examplesSelf-configuration
German: Selbstkonfiguration
In automation and IT systems, self-configuration is the ability of a device, module or system to set its own configuration parameters automatically, based on its environment, its self-description and information from the system it joins, with little or no manual engineering.
System integration
Definition and examplesSelf-description
German: Selbstbeschreibung
In industrial automation and Industrie 4.0, self-description is the ability of a device, machine or module to provide machine-readable information about itself, such as identity, capabilities, interfaces, data and parameters, in a standardized format that other systems can interpret.
System integration
Definition and examplesSequence optimization
German: Reihenfolgeoptimierung
In production planning and automation, sequence optimization is the determination of the order in which jobs, operations or motions are processed so that a goal, such as minimal setup time, minimal cycle time or on-time delivery, is best achieved under the given constraints.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Sequence synchronization
German: Ablaufsynchronisierung
In industrial automation, sequence synchronization is the alignment of two or more sequential control processes, such as step sequences in different machines or units, at defined synchronization points, so that one sequence does not proceed until the other has reached a required step.
System integration
Definition and examples Service choreography
German: Dienstchoreografie
In service-oriented and event-driven architecture, service choreography is a form of coordination in which services interact by reacting to each other's messages or events according to agreed rules, without a central controller directing the overall process.
System integration
Definition and examplesService discovery
German: Diensterkennung
In networked and distributed systems, service discovery is the mechanism by which clients find available services, servers or devices and their network addresses and capabilities at runtime, without fixed configuration, through a registry or network announcements.
System integration
Definition and examplesService orchestration
German: Dienstorchestrierung
In service-oriented architecture, service orchestration is the coordination of several services by a central orchestrator that calls them in a defined order, passes data between them and handles errors, implementing a business or technical process as a composed service.
System integration
Definition and examplesShared resource
German: Gemeinsam genutzte Ressource
In automation and computing, a shared resource is a resource, such as a robot, tool, workstation, conveyor segment, data store or communication channel, that several tasks, machines or processes use, but typically not all at the same time, so access must be coordinated.
System integration
Definition and examplesShortest processing time (SPT)
German: Kürzeste Bearbeitungszeit (SPT)
In production scheduling, shortest processing time (SPT) is a priority rule that always selects, from the jobs waiting at a resource, the job with the shortest processing time; on a single resource it minimizes average flow time and the average number of waiting jobs.
System integration
Definition and examplesShutdown sequence
German: Abfahrsequenz
In industrial automation, a shutdown sequence is the defined series of steps by which a machine, unit or plant is brought from operation into a stopped, safe and consistent state, for example emptying lines, stopping drives in order and depressurizing equipment.
System integration · Process industry
Definition and examplesSplit-brain condition
German: Split-Brain-Zustand
In redundant and distributed systems, a split-brain condition is a fault state in which the nodes of a cluster or redundant pair lose communication with each other and more than one node acts as the active primary, leading to conflicting decisions, outputs or data.
System integration
Definition and examplesStartup sequence
German: Anfahrsequenz
In industrial automation, a startup sequence is the defined series of steps by which a machine, unit or plant is brought from a shut-down state into normal operation, for example by checking preconditions, homing axes, bringing utilities online and starting units in a set order.
System integration · Process industry
Definition and examplesStarvation state
German: Materialmangelzustand
In production lines, a starvation state is the condition in which a machine or station is ready to work but idle because it receives no material, parts or workpieces from upstream.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
State coordination
German: Zustandskoordination
In industrial automation, state coordination is the alignment of the state models of several machines, units or subsystems, so that their states and state transitions are consistent across the system, for example so that all machines of a line are held or stopped together.
System integration
Definition and examples State replication
German: Zustandsreplikation
In redundant and distributed systems, state replication is the continuous copying of a system's state, such as data, variables or process images, from one node to one or more other nodes, so that another node can take over or serve reads with the same state.
System integration
Definition and examplesState synchronization
German: Zustandssynchronisierung
In distributed and integrated systems, state synchronization is the process of keeping the state information of a machine, process or object consistent across several systems or components, such as controllers, HMIs, MES and digital twins, so that all of them work with the same view.
System integration
Definition and examplesStrong consistency
German: Starke Konsistenz
In distributed systems, strong consistency is a consistency model in which every read returns the most recent completed write, so all clients see the same data in the same order as if there were a single copy, regardless of which node they access.
System integration
Definition and examplesSubsystem integration
German: Subsystemintegration
In systems engineering, subsystem integration is the step-by-step assembly of subsystems into a higher-level system and the verification that their interfaces and interactions work as specified, before the complete system is integrated and verified.
System integration
Definition and examplesSupervisory controller
German: Übergeordnete Steuerung
In industrial automation, a supervisory controller is a controller at a higher level of the control hierarchy that sets targets, modes, recipes or commands for subordinate controllers and monitors them, instead of controlling actuators directly.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Supervisory coordination
German: Übergeordnete Koordination
In industrial automation, supervisory coordination is coordination of several machines, units or subsystems through a higher-level instance, the supervisory controller, which issues commands and targets to subordinate controllers and resolves conflicts between them.
System integration
Definition and examples Switchover
German: Umschaltung
In redundant systems, a switchover is the transfer of the active role from one component, such as a controller, server, network path or power supply, to its redundant counterpart, either automatically after a failure or manually for maintenance.
System integration
Definition and examplesSystem context diagram
German: Systemkontextdiagramm
In systems engineering, a system context diagram is a diagram that shows the system of interest as a single element together with the external actors and systems it interacts with, and the flows of information, material or energy across its boundary.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
System coordination
German: Systemkoordination
In automation and systems engineering, system coordination is the overall alignment of the behavior of the parts of a system, such as machines, controllers, software services and people, so that they achieve the system's purpose together, covering states, modes, sequences, resources and data.
System integration
Definition and examples System gateway
German: System-Gateway
In industrial integration, a system gateway is a device or software component that connects two systems or network domains, for example a machine network and the plant network or cloud, and handles communication between them, including protocol conversion, data transformation, filtering and security functions.
System integration
Definition and examplesSystem integration
German: Systemintegration
In systems engineering, system integration is the process of combining system elements, such as subsystems, hardware, software, data and people, into a complete system and verifying that they work together and with the system's environment as specified.
System integration
Definition and examplesSystem integration test
German: Systemintegrationstest
In systems and software engineering, a system integration test is a test that verifies the interfaces and interactions between integrated system elements, and between the system and connected external systems, after they have been combined.
System integration
Definition and examplesSystem-of-systems
ISO/IEC/IEEE 21839German: Systemverbund
In systems engineering, a system-of-systems (SoS) is a set of independent systems that interact to provide a capability that none of them provides alone, while each constituent system keeps its own operational and managerial independence.
System integration · Standards
Definition and examplesSystem-of-systems integration
German: Integration eines Systemverbunds
In systems engineering, system-of-systems integration is the process of connecting independently owned and operated systems so that they deliver a joint capability, including the agreement of interfaces, data exchange, responsibilities and joint testing, while each system keeps its independence.
System integration
Definition and examplesTask allocation
German: Aufgabenzuteilung
In automation, robotics and human-machine systems, task allocation is the distribution of tasks among available resources, such as machines, robots, software agents or people, based on their capabilities, availability and the goals of the system.
System integration
Definition and examplesTask assignment
German: Aufgabenzuweisung
In automation and production control, task assignment is the concrete act of giving a specific task or job to a specific resource, such as a machine, robot, vehicle or person, for execution.
System integration
Definition and examplesTask dispatching
German: Auftragsdisposition
In automation and production control, task dispatching is the release of waiting tasks or jobs to resources for execution at the right time and in the right order, based on priorities, resource availability and the current state of the system.
System integration
Definition and examplesTask sequencing
German: Aufgabenreihenfolge
In automation and production control, task sequencing is the determination and execution of the order in which tasks or operations are carried out, respecting precedence constraints, resource availability and process requirements.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Time coherence
German: Zeitkohärenz
In distributed and integrated systems, time coherence is the property that the timestamps and time references used by different components are consistent with each other, so that events recorded in different systems can be ordered and correlated correctly.
System integration
Definition and examples Time stamp alignment
German: Zeitstempelausrichtung
In data integration and analysis, time stamp alignment is the process of bringing timestamps from different sources onto a common time basis and resolution, for example by correcting offsets, converting time zones and resampling, so that the data can be compared and combined.
System integration
Definition and examplesTotal ordering
German: Totale Ordnung
In distributed systems, total ordering is the guarantee that all nodes see and process a set of events or messages in the same order, so that replicas that apply them reach the same state.
System integration
Definition and examplesTraceability matrix
German: Rückverfolgbarkeitsmatrix
In systems and software engineering, a traceability matrix is a table or report that shows the relationships between artifacts, typically requirements and the design elements, implementation, tests and evidence that address them, so that coverage and the impact of changes can be checked.
System integration · Technical documentation
Definition and examplesTransaction coordinator
German: Transaktionskoordinator
In distributed systems, a transaction coordinator is the component that controls a distributed transaction across several participants, collects their votes and decides whether the transaction is committed or aborted, as in the two-phase commit protocol.
System integration
Definition and examplesTransfer condition
German: Übergabebedingung
In industrial automation, a transfer condition is the set of conditions that must be fulfilled before a workpiece, material, product or control responsibility is handed over from one machine, station or unit to another, such as both sides ready, positions reached and the target free.
System integration
Definition and examples- Working term
Transfer sequence
German: Übergabesequenz
In industrial automation, a transfer sequence is the defined series of steps by which a workpiece, material or product is handed over from one machine, station or unit to another, including the signals exchanged and the actions each side performs.
System integration
Definition and examples Two-phase commit
German: Zwei-Phasen-Commit
In distributed systems, two-phase commit (2PC) is an atomic commitment protocol in which a coordinator first asks all participants whether they can commit a transaction (prepare phase) and then, only if all agree, instructs them to commit, otherwise to abort (commit phase).
System integration
Definition and examplesUpstream blocking
German: Blockierung durch vorgelagerte Station
In production lines, upstream blocking is the condition in which a machine or station cannot pass its finished output on because the downstream station or buffer is full or not ready, so it must stop, and the blockage propagates to the machines upstream of it.
System integration
Definition and examplesUpstream machine
German: Vorgelagerte Maschine
In production lines, an upstream machine is a machine or station located before another one in the material flow, which supplies it with material, parts or products; the receiving machine is its downstream neighbor.
System integration
Definition and examplesVector clock
German: Vektoruhr
In distributed systems, a vector clock is a logical clock consisting of one counter per node that is attached to events and messages; comparing two vector clocks shows whether one event causally happened before the other or whether they are concurrent.
System integration
Definition and examplesWorkflow engine
German: Workflow-Engine
In software engineering, a workflow engine is a software component that executes defined workflows, sequences of automated and human tasks, by tracking their state, invoking services or assigning tasks to people, and handling waits, timeouts and errors.
System integration
Definition and examplesWorkflow orchestration
German: Workflow-Orchestrierung
In software and data engineering, workflow orchestration is the automated coordination of the tasks of a workflow, such as data jobs, service calls, machine steps or human approvals, by a central orchestrator that manages dependencies, scheduling, retries and monitoring.
System integration
Definition and examples
Engineering, integration and validation
Cause-and-effect matrix
German: Ursache-Wirkungs-Matrix
In process automation, a cause-and-effect matrix is a tabular specification that lists initiating conditions (causes, such as trip signals from transmitters) in rows and the resulting actions (effects, such as closing valves or stopping pumps) in columns. Marked cells define which causes trigger which effects.
Validation · Functional safety · Process industry
Definition and examplesConfiguration (automation)
IEC 61131-3German: Konfiguration
In industrial automation, configuration is the set of settings and structural definitions that adapt a generic system to a specific application, such as hardware modules, network addresses, parameters and task assignments. In IEC 61131-3, a configuration is also a language element that represents a complete programmable controller system containing resources, tasks and programs.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesConfiguration management
ISO 10007German: Konfigurationsmanagement
In systems and software engineering, configuration management is the coordinated activity of identifying the configuration items of a product, controlling changes to them, recording their status and auditing that the product matches its documented configuration. It applies to hardware, software, parameters and documentation over the whole life cycle.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesControl narrative
German: Steuerungsbeschreibung
In industrial automation, a control narrative is a prose description of how a plant section, unit or machine is to be controlled, including operating modes, sequences, control loops, interlocks, alarms and operator actions. It links process design and control software.
Validation · Process industry · Technical documentation
Definition and examplesDesign specification
German: Entwurfsspezifikation
In automation and software engineering, a design specification describes how a system will be built to meet its functional specification: architecture, hardware and software modules, interfaces, data structures and algorithms. It is the basis for implementation and for detailed tests.
Validation
Definition and examplesDigital factory acceptance test
German: Digitaler Werksabnahmetest
In automation engineering, a digital factory acceptance test is a factory acceptance test performed against a simulation or digital model of the machine or plant instead of, or before, the physical equipment. The real control software is tested with simulated sensors, actuators and processes, often with the customer taking part remotely.
Validation
Definition and examplesElectrical schematic
IEC 61082-1German: Stromlaufplan
In electrical engineering, an electrical schematic (circuit diagram) shows the circuits of an electrical installation or machine with graphical symbols, arranged by function rather than physical location, so that its operation can be understood. Devices are identified by reference designations.
Validation · Technical documentation · Standards
Definition and examplesEngineering tool
German: Engineering-Tool
In industrial automation, an engineering tool is software used to configure, program, simulate, commission and diagnose automation components such as controllers, drives, HMIs and networks. Integrated engineering tools combine several of these tasks in one project.
Validation
Definition and examplesFactory acceptance test (FAT)
IEC 62381German: Werksabnahme (FAT)
In automation projects, a factory acceptance test (FAT) is the test of a machine, skid or automation system at the supplier's premises, usually witnessed by the customer, to show that it meets the agreed specifications before shipment. Passing the FAT is often a contractual milestone.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesFunctional specification
German: Funktionsspezifikation
In automation and software engineering, a functional specification describes what a system must do to meet the user requirements: its functions, operating modes, interfaces, alarms and performance, from the user's and process view rather than as a technical design.
Validation
Definition and examplesHardware configuration
German: Hardwarekonfiguration
In industrial automation, hardware configuration is the definition, in the engineering tool, of the physical automation components and their settings: controllers, I/O modules, communication modules, network addresses and module parameters. The controller uses it to check and operate the connected hardware.
Validation
Definition and examplesHardware-in-the-loop (HIL)
German: Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)
In control engineering, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) is a test method in which the real control hardware, running its real software, is connected to a real-time simulation of the machine or process. The simulation supplies sensor signals and reacts to the controller's outputs.
Validation
Definition and examplesI/O list
German: E/A-Liste
In automation engineering, an I/O list is a table of all input and output signals connected to a control system, typically with tag number, description, signal type, range, engineering unit and assigned controller channel. It links the process design, electrical design and control software.
Validation
Definition and examplesInternational Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
German: International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the international standards organization for electrical, electronic and related technologies, based in Geneva. Its standards include IEC 61131 (programmable controllers), IEC 61508 (functional safety), IEC 60204-1 (electrical equipment of machines) and, with ISA, IEC 62443 (industrial cybersecurity).
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesModular software design
German: Modularer Softwareentwurf
In software engineering, modular software design structures a program into self-contained modules with defined interfaces, each responsible for one function or equipment unit. In automation, modules are often function blocks or equipment modules that are reused across machines and plants.
Validation
Definition and examplesMultiphysics simulation
German: Multiphysik-Simulation
In engineering, multiphysics simulation is the simulation of several coupled physical effects in one model, such as mechanical, thermal, electrical, fluid and control behavior. In machine design it is used to study how mechanics, drives and control software interact before a prototype exists.
Validation
Definition and examplesMultiuser engineering
German: Multiuser-Engineering
In industrial automation, multiuser engineering is the ability of several engineers to work on the same automation project at the same time, with the engineering tool managing shared objects, check-in and check-out and conflicts. It is a feature of some integrated engineering tools.
Validation
Definition and examples.NET integration
German: .NET-Integration
In industrial automation, .NET integration is the use of Microsoft's .NET platform to extend or connect automation systems, for example through APIs that automate engineering tools, .NET-based HMI or SCADA add-ins, or applications that exchange data with controllers.
Validation · Vendor product
Definition and examplesNetwork topology diagram
German: Netzwerktopologieplan
In industrial automation, a network topology diagram shows the communication networks of a machine or plant: devices, switches, routers, firewalls, network segments, connections and their addresses or names. It documents how components communicate and where networks are separated.
Validation · OT security · Technical documentation
Definition and examplesPenetration test (OT)
IEC 62443-4-1German: Penetrationstest (Pentest) im OT-Umfeld
In industrial cybersecurity, a penetration test in the OT environment is an authorized, planned attempt to find and exploit vulnerabilities in operational technology, such as controllers, HMIs, networks and remote access, to assess how an attacker could compromise the system. It is performed with methods that avoid disturbing the physical process.
Validation · OT security
Definition and examplesPiping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID)
ISO 10628-1 / ANSI/ISA-5.1German: Rohrleitungs- und Instrumentierungsfließschema (R&I-Fließschema)
In process engineering, a piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) shows the equipment, piping, valves, instruments and control functions of a process plant with standardized symbols and tag numbers. It is the central engineering document linking process design, instrumentation and automation.
Validation · Process industry · Technical documentation
Definition and examplesProject management
ISO 21502German: Projektmanagement
In engineering, project management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of resources, schedule, cost, quality and risk to achieve the objectives of a project. In automation projects it coordinates mechanical, electrical, software, testing and documentation work up to acceptance.
Validation
Definition and examplesRequirements engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148German: Anforderungsmanagement
In systems and software engineering, requirements engineering is the discipline of eliciting, analyzing, specifying, validating and managing the requirements of a system throughout its life cycle. It ensures that requirements are complete, unambiguous, verifiable and traceable.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesRequirements specification
DIN 69901-5German: Pflichtenheft
In German engineering practice, a requirements specification (Pflichtenheft) is the contractor's document describing how and with what means the requirements of the client's user requirements document (Lastenheft) will be met. In English usage, requirements specification can also refer more generally to any document that states system requirements.
Validation
Definition and examplesSignal list
German: Signalliste
In automation engineering, a signal list is a table of all signals relevant to a control system, including hardwired inputs and outputs and signals exchanged over networks with other systems, with name, description, data type, range, unit and source and destination.
Validation
Definition and examplesSIMIT simulation
German: SIMIT-Simulation
In industrial automation, SIMIT is a Siemens simulation platform used to simulate plant behavior, signals and field devices for testing automation software, particularly for virtual commissioning and operator training. SIMIT simulation refers to tests and models built with this platform.
Validation · Vendor product
Definition and examplesSimulation
German: Simulation
In engineering, simulation is the reproduction of the behavior of a system or process in a model, so that it can be analyzed, tested or trained with before or instead of using the real system. In automation, simulation is used for design, software testing, virtual commissioning and operator training.
Validation
Definition and examplesSite acceptance test (SAT)
IEC 62381German: Abnahme vor Ort (SAT)
In automation projects, a site acceptance test (SAT) is the test of an installed machine or automation system at the customer's site to show that it works as specified in its real environment, with its real utilities, interfaces and process. Passing the SAT is often a contractual milestone for handover.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesSoftware-in-the-loop (SIL)
German: Software-in-the-Loop (SIL)
In control engineering, software-in-the-loop (SIL) is a test method in which the control software runs on a PC, virtual controller or emulator and is connected to a simulation of the machine or process, without the real control hardware.
Validation
Definition and examplesSystems engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288German: Systems Engineering
In engineering, systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach to define, develop, integrate, verify, validate and maintain complex systems over their whole life cycle, starting from stakeholder needs. It coordinates mechanical, electrical, software and other disciplines through requirements, architecture and interfaces.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesTest bench
German: Prüfstand
In engineering, a test bench is a setup of equipment, fixtures, measuring devices and control systems used to test components, assemblies or software under defined and reproducible conditions. In automation, test benches range from controller racks with simulated I/O to full functional rigs for drives or machine modules.
Validation
Definition and examplesTest case
ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119German: Testfall
In systems and software testing, a test case is a set of preconditions, inputs, actions and expected results, derived from a requirement or specification, used to check whether a test item behaves as intended. Test cases are traced to the requirements they cover.
Validation · Standards
Definition and examplesTest procedure
ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-3German: Prüfanweisung
In testing and quality assurance, a test procedure is a documented sequence of steps describing how to carry out a test: required equipment and setup, preconditions, actions, measurements, acceptance criteria and how to record results. It lets different testers perform the test the same way.
Validation
Definition and examples- Working term
Test protocol
German: Prüfprotokoll
In testing and quality assurance, a test protocol (test record) is the documented record of a test execution: the test item and its version, the procedure used, equipment, date, tester, measured values, results against acceptance criteria and deviations. It serves as evidence that the test was performed.
Validation · Technical documentation
Definition and examples User requirements specification (URS)
German: Benutzeranforderungsspezifikation (URS)
In automation and regulated industries, a user requirements specification (URS) is the document in which the customer or user states what a system must do and which conditions it must meet, from the user's point of view and independent of a technical solution. It is the starting point for specification, design and acceptance.
Validation · Process industry
Definition and examplesVersion control
German: Versionsverwaltung
In software engineering, version control is the practice and tooling for recording changes to files over time, so that earlier versions can be restored, changes compared and parallel work merged. In automation, it is applied to PLC and HMI projects, parameters, scripts and documentation sources.
Validation
Definition and examplesVirtual commissioning
German: Virtuelle Inbetriebnahme
In automation engineering, virtual commissioning is the testing and commissioning of control software against a simulation model of the machine or plant before the physical equipment is available. The real or emulated controller exchanges signals with the model as it would with the real plant.
Validation
Definition and examplesWiring diagram
IEC 61082-1German: Verdrahtungsplan
In electrical engineering, a wiring diagram shows the physical connections of an electrical installation: which terminals, devices and cables are connected to each other, often with wire numbers, colors and cross-sections. It is used for manufacturing, installation and fault finding.
Validation · Technical documentation
Definition and examples
Definitions follow the cited standards and specifications. Where a source is a copyrighted publication, such as an ISO, IEC or EN standard, the definition is a close paraphrase, not a verbatim quotation, so as not to infringe copyright. We recommend reading the original publication. The sections “How it applies” are editorial commentary by AI TechDoc Blog and are not part of any standard.