An interesting thing happened today. I’ve started a new position with a great company. Though I’ll be working out of Columbia, MO, they flew the team out to D.C. to the headquarters for the project kickoff. Last night and today has been a whirlwind of information, getting a fast-tracked overview of their existing systems and development before beginning the meetings today through wednesday on the new effort. But one thing stood out above all the others:
TLAs
What are TLAs? Three Letter Acronyms. Actually, to be fair, some of these were more or less than three letters, but between yesterday and today I’ve been hit with no less than 19 new acronyms I have never heard before or that are specific to the business. Yes, 19 in about 12 hours.
Which brings up a good point. If you are in a meeting, or development conversation, and a TLA, or other word you don’t know, gets thrown around, be sure to stop at the nearest point and ask the speaker what it is. For example, if someone says they use XP are they referring to Microsoft XP or Extreme Programming? Maybe you can tell from the context, but it never hurts to ask. Which is how I ended up with about 5 pages of notes, with quite a bit dedicated to defining acronyms.
Whether it be XP, TDD, JSF, RTF or many others, what’s your favorite TLA?
My favorite is asking if a device has LRF support.
“LRF?”, you ask.
Little Rubber Feet, of course.
Congrats on the new gig! If you’re ever looking for a job in New York, let me know… -Luke
WTF is by far my favorite…
SWF Single White Female