Buzzword compliant

In the technology industry, buzzword compliant is a tongue-in-cheek expression used to suggest that a particular product supports features simply because they are currently fashionable.^[1] Examples include:

• Client–server products in the early 1990s
• CORBA and COM based programs in the mid-1990s
• Java-based programs in the late 1990s
• Protected memory and preemptive multitasking in the late 1990s
• Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
• Ajax or Web 2.0 in 2000s and 2010s
• Cloud computing in 2010s
• NoSQL
• Agile software development
• Big Data

Buzzword compliance is a modern version of the old practice of being checkbox compliant, ensuring that a product has all the features listed in product reviews. Since many of the decision-makers regarding technology purchases may only be semi-literate technically, the use of buzzwords makes a product sound more valuable. Among the technically literate, the phrase is sometimes used in a sardonic way, as in: "I have no idea what it does, but it sure is buzzword compliant", implying that perhaps the effort on the product has gone into marketing and public relations rather than the technology.

Technical staff, and those involved in recruiting and hiring them, also speak of a résumé or CV being "buzzword compliant" when it contains a large number of such terms. This can be a matter of some practical importance to a job-seeker. In many large organizations, those who receive and evaluate applications for employment will not be familiar with the domain of the job, and therefore can only assess buzzword compliance with the job description when deciding which applications the hiring manager will see.

See also

• Buzzword
• Buzzword bingo
• Golden hammer
• Power word

References

This article is based in part on the Jargon File, which is in the public domain.