This glossary defines the vocabulary of AI Developer, from the five developer functions, the classes of development work and the degrees of delegation to the artefacts, roles, practices, regulations and frameworks that the chapters use. Each entry gives the book's own usage in one to three sentences and names the chapter that owns the term, where it is introduced or defined. Where a term is used in a sense the chapters do not support, it is left out rather than defined. Terms that earlier volumes of the series defined are repeated briefly, with the volume named, so that the reader is not left with a gap.
Entries are in alphabetical order. Identifiers in code formatting (OWN-*, RVW-*) are sorted by their letters. An identifier such as DLG-* names a pattern: the wildcard stands for the number the organisation assigns to each record, and the book's examples use NR for Nordvik Region and HM for Hansa Mutual. AI Decision Records run from AIDR-1100 to AIDR-1199 in this book: Nordvik Region AIDR-1100 to AIDR-1149 and Hansa Mutual AIDR-1150 to AIDR-1199.
Levels, modes and work classes are defined in sets, so read an entry for one of them together with the entries it refers to. The book sets ceilings and not single values: where an entry gives a default, a delegation profile may set a lower level, and the lowest ceiling that applies governs. Legal entries follow the instrument and attribute each statement to its article as the chapters cite it; they describe organisational and architectural implications and are not legal advice. The labels observable, expected and speculation are defined below and mark every statement about the future. The functions D1 to D5 of this book are not the operations functions O1 to O5 of AI Operations or the leadership functions L1 to L5 of AI Leader.
Primary topics explored
- How to use this glossary
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
About AI Developer
AI Developer is Book 12 of The Transformed Architecture. It takes the developer as its subject and asks what happens when AI is used broadly in software development: the five developer functions (frame, design, build, prove, steward), the delegation ladder and the Level 4 prohibitions, the stewardship principle (name, understand, revert), verification as the scarce skill, the junior pipeline, adoption and productivity as claims that need evidence, regulation (the AI Act, the Cyber Resilience Act, the Product Liability Directive, NIS 2, DORA, the GDPR), ethics, intellectual property and sovereignty in the toolchain, and the developer as a person, for European enterprises and public authorities.
It builds on the conclusions of Architecture as Code, AI Governance, AI Platform and Security, AI Red Team, AI Threat, The Transformed Security Architect, AI Boss, AI Blue, AI Purple, AI Operations and AI Leader.
developers at every level, tech leads and engineering managers, architects, platform engineers, site reliability engineers and testers, product owners and designers, leaders who decide on developer tooling, heads of public-sector IT and procurement, works councils and unions, educators, and supervisors and auditors.
Gunnar Nordqvist
Conceived, directed and published the books of The Transformed Architecture.
Continue with the full chapter
Glossary: Glossary in AI Developer gives the detailed explanations, practical examples and implementation patterns behind this summary.
This whitepaper belongs to “Appendices” and is one of 37 drawn from the manuscript.