Software Marketing terminology explained:

----- Begin NetScrap(TM) -----

Software Marketing terminology explained:


Alpha:             Software that is so buggy that even the beta
                   testers won't install it.

Announced date:    The date the product manager hopes to go on
                   vacation.

API:               A function library with more than 200 minimally
                   distinguishable entry points.

Beta:              Software that isn't quite finished, as in "beta
                   late than never."

Chief Technology Officer: The guy in charge of the PowerPoint slide
                   show.

Fact sheet:        What's left of the specification after the
                   product ships.

Focus group:       Buying drinks for market analysts.

Fully compatible:  Same old features.

In manufacturing:  The programmers are still "manufacturing"
                   features.

In shipping:       Someone in the 0000 ZIP code has a copy -- most
                   likely the product manager's brother-in-law. No 
                   one else will get a copy for weeks.

Industry insiders: Disgruntled employees after one too many drinks.

Long-term planning: What will happen when the new marketing VP is
                   hired.

Market research:   Buying drinks for customers.

Memory leak:       What the company president remembers telling the
                   market analysts.

Minimum system requirements:   The oldest PC anyone could find in
                   the company storeroom.

Multitasking:      The ability to crash several programs at the same
                   time.

Multithreading:    The ability to crash a single program in several
                   ways at the same time.

New and improved:  Totally incompatible.

On schedule:       Will include a coupon in the box for the missing
                   pieces.

Online help:       Call the psychic hotline for technical support.

Open architecture: The developers didn't finish half of what was in
                   the spec.

Press leak:        The company president speaking to market
                   analysts.

Press release:     What the marketing department thought was being
                   built.  Often confused with the specification for 
                   the next version.

Release candidate: Software built just before a major holiday.

SDK:               A development system without documentation.

Short-term planning: Meeting payroll.

Strategic partnership: A couple of second-rate companies that cannot
                   afford to merge.

Trade secret:      Another way to say "we don't have the source
                   code."

Upwardly compatible: Lots of new bugs.

User friendly:     Lots and lots of gratuitous bitmaps.

Visionary:         CEO who has not yet bankrupted a company.

Windows 95 compatible: The 1993 feature set, two years later.


----- End NetScrap(TM) -----