Software Testing is a part of the software development process used to measure the quality of a software program an application or a product by validating and verifying that it meets the business and technical requirements that guided its design and development.

Software Certification programs are made available by major hardware and software vendors. Achieving a software certification is the process of formally testing a software program, an application or a product to ensure it meets the technical requirements and eligibility qualifications set out by the certification program.

Software Compatibility is testing conducted on the software program, an application or a product to evaluate its compatibility with the target computing environment including amongst others the hardware platform, operating system, databases, browsers, etc.

Application Software Testing or application testing is software testing that focuses on application software as opposed to system or embedded software.

Web Software Testing or web testing is software testing that focuses on web applications accessed through browsers including desktop and mobile browsers. It is a subset of application software testing.

Software Performance Testing is the process of validating and verifying the scalability, reliability and resources used by a software program, an application or a product. Performance testing scenarios include load testing, stress testing, endurance testing, spike testing and scalability testing.

Stress Testing is aimed at assessing the software performance when system resources are busy near or above capacity. Often this is performed using the same process as Performance Testing but employing a very high level of simulated load. In particular, the goals o such tests may be to ensure the software does not crash in conditions of insufficient computational resources and high concurrency.

Software Load Testing is used to verify software performance behavior for business functions under the normal and heavy work conditions. The success criteria of this test are completion of all the test cases without any failures and within acceptable time allocation.

Software Test Automation is the use of software to control the execution of software tests requiring no operator input, analysis or evaluation.

Software Testing Tools are computer programs used in the testing of a software, a component of the software, or its documentation.

Software Testing Outsourcing is subcontracting of Software Testing & Quality Assurance functions to a third-party company not directly involved in the process of software development. The benefits provided by external testing experts include independent assessment, specialized and skilled resources, and reduced time to market, lower infrastructure investment and increased time to focus on core development tasks.

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is defined as a planned and systematic approach to the evaluation of the quality of and adherence to software product standards, processes, and procedures.

Software Quality Metric is a measure of software quality attributes such as cohesion, completeness, extensibility, scalability, reliability, efficiency, security, maintainability, etc.

A software testing life cycle is the structure imposed on the testing of a software and generally includes test planning, test development, test execution, test reporting, test result analysis, defect retesting, regression testing and test closure.

Software Unit or component testing focuses on the verification of the smallest element of the software - the module. Using the detailed design description important control paths are tested to establish errors within the bounds of the module.

Integration testing is the activity of software testing performed once all the unit tests have been completed there is a need to test how the units were put together to ensure no data is lost across interface, one module does not have an adverse impact on another and a function is not performed correctly. Integration testing is a systematic approach that produces the program structure while at the same time producing tests to identify errors associated with interfacing.

System Testing is the activity of software testing performed on an integrated software with other system components. System testing is a series of different tests whose main aim is to fully exercise the computer-based system. Although each test has a different role, all work should verify that all system elements have been properly integrated and form allocated functions.

Alpha testing is simulated or actual operational testing by potential users/customers or an independent test team. Alpha testing is often employed for software products as a form of internal acceptance testing, before the software beta testing.

Beta Testing is the activity of testing a pre-release of a software product conducted by customers. Beta testing comes after alpha testing. Versions of the software, known as beta versions, are released to a limited audience outside of the development team. The software is released to groups of people so that further testing can ensure the product has few faults or bugs. Sometimes, beta versions are made available to the open public to increase the feedback field to a maximal number of future users.

Acceptance testing is the activity of software testing by a user or customer to determine whether to accept a software product and is normally performed to validate that the software meets a set of agreed acceptance criteria. It is also referred to as final testing, validation testing, etc.

Regression testing is the activity of testing software to uncover software regressions (previously working software functionality which has stopped working as intended).

White Box Testing is software testing performed by a software tester who possesses knowledge of the inner workings, structure and language of the software, or at least its purpose.

Black box testing is software testing without any knowledge of the inner workings, structure or language of the module being tested.

Security testing is the activity of testing software ability to protect data against unauthorized access and to withstand malicious or inadvertent interference with its operations. Besides the presence of appropriate security mechanisms such as authentication, access control and encryption, security also implies resilience in the face of malicious, intelligent and adaptive attackers.

Software Outsourcing (aka to Outsource Software) is the activity of leveraging software services from an outsourcing service provider. Software services include software development, software enhancement, software maintenance, software testing, and software support services.

Offshore Software Outsourcing is software outsourcing leveraging a service provider with facilities positioned in a country that is geographically remote from the client enterprise and is a type of offshore outsourcing.

An Outsourcing Solution (aka software outsourcing services) is the combination of the services to be rendered or leveraged, the business terms, associated business constraints and benefits and the individual responsibilities for the client and the outsourcing solution service provider. An outsourcing solution defines the what and how of the business issue being addressed by the solution.

Project Outsourcing is an Outsourcing Solution that addresses the need to get a Project completed where the client defines the scope and the service provider assumes the risks of getting it done successfully to the client's satisfaction. Project Outsourcing may or may not involve dedicated resources depending on the service provider's policies.

Offshore Staffing is an outsourcing solution where the Client retains control of the work performed by the dedicated resources while leveraging lower costs of offshore resources. The resources work from an offshore development center and is supervised by the service provider to ensure optimal output and productivity. The service provider is responsible for HR (hiring, firing and retaining), provide infrastructure and security, arrange interviews and selections, maintain the resources on payroll, attest resource programmer experience and credibility, ensure resource's presence and output, maintain auxiliary resources to ensure backup and continuity, enforce defined coding standards and styles, and provide daily/weekly progress reports The Client controls the work performed and pays a monthly fee.

An Offshore Development Center (ODC) is an outsourcing solution made up of a dedicated team of resources who have been hired based on inputs by the client to complement the customer's skill set and culture. This dedicated team works exclusively for the client at the service provider's site in a secure environment. The infrastructure and security is designed to meet the client's specific standards and specifications, and may include co-branding. The service provider assumes the responsibility of adhering to the Client's requirements as well as for project management and quality of deliverable.

A captive center is an offshoring Solution and is a company owned offshore operation where activities are preformed offshore but are not outsourced.

A Virtual Captive Center is an outsourcing solution with all the benefits of a captive center in return for an administration fee. The benefits include all the benefits of an offshore development center as well as transparency in costs.

Software Outsourcing Company or Software Outsourcing firm is an entity that performs software development related activities for its customers. The entity could be working at an offshore location or onshore location.

Offshore .NET Developers

Offshore Java developers

Microsoft Development is all about creating applications using Microsoft platform. Different technologies within the platforms lets developers create console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all platforms supported by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, .NET Framework, .NET Compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.

Windows Software Development is about developing applications using Windows as a platform, these utilities and applications can interact with Windows API and SDK

ASP.NET is a web application framework from Microsoft to allow .NET programmers build dynamic web sites, web applications and web services. The first version of this framework was released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is built on the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR), allowing programmers to write ASP.NET code using any supported .NET language.

The Microsoft .NET development is about creating applications using a version of .NET Framework, these applications developed using this framework can be installed on computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems. .NET Framework includes a large library of coded solutions to common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. Visual Studio is generally used as an IDE to do .NET development

Windows Web Development is about creating web based applications that can run in Windows platform. Developers generally use ASP, ASP.NET, ActiveX, Web Parts, Web Services to let these web applications run.

Microsoft SharePoint is the server based offering from Microsoft and is part of SharePoint Products and Technologies. These form a collection of products and software elements that include web browser based collaboration functions, process management modules, search modules and a document-management platform. SharePoint can be used to host web sites that access shared workspaces, team collaboration, information stores and documents, as well as host defined applications such as wikis and blogs.

SharePoint Web Parts are server-side controls that run inside the context of special pages within an ASP.NET application or a Windows SharePoint Services site. They are the building blocks of pages in Windows SharePoint Services. Windows SharePoint Services include standard built-in Web Parts that developers can use after the installation of the product.

Windows SharePoint Services Web services provided by the Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer namespace include methods for accessing content on a Web site such as for working with SharePoint lists or site data-as well as methods for customizing SharePoint collaboration modules such as meetings, imaging, document workspaces, or search.

Microsoft InfoPath is part of Microsoft Office suite and is an application used to develop XML-based data entry forms. The main feature of InfoPath is its ability to author and view XML documents with support for custom-defined XML schemata. It can connect to external systems using XML Web services through MSXML and the SOAP Toolkit, and back-end and middle-tier systems can be configured to communicate by using Web services standards such as SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL.

SharePoint integration is about applications that can interact with different systems and present it to the user using SharePoint provided collaboration and presentation modules such as web parts and custom lists.

.NET Web Services applications is about creating ASP.NET web applications that can be used as an API and called over the internet. These web services use SOAP as the protocol and the definition of these can be found via the WSDL provided as part of the web service

A Web Service is defined as a component of programmable application logic that can be accessed using standard web protocols. It's basically a component, SDK, API or an assembly in ASP.NET, that can be accessed over the web. Anyone with a browser can see and consume this application logic.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML grammar that defines the functionality offered by a Web service and the format of messages sent and received by a Web service. A Web service's WSDL document defines what services are available in its Web service. The WSDL document also defines the methods, parameter names, parameter data types, and return data types for the Web service. An application that uses a Web service relies on the Web service's WSDL document to access the Web service's features. An application that uses a Web service can be built on any platform that supports Web services.

The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) provides an XML-based protocol to exchange information. Web Services created using ASP.NET requires applications to use SOAP when calling the Web Services API. When your application makes a call to the Web Services API, the call is translated into a SOAP request. Web Servicereceives the SOAP request, and then responds with a SOAP response. Your application then receives the SOAP response and translates it into the return value of the API call.

A Microsoft Office InfoPath Web Services are used in Infopath form template's that can have one primary data connection, known as the main data source, and it can optionally have one or more secondary data connections. You can use either or both kinds of connections to connect to data that is provided by a Web service. Depending on your goals for the form template, its data connections can query or submit data to a Web service.

.NET remoting technology enables .NET programmers build widely distributed applications easily, whether application components are all on one computer or spread out across different locations. You can also use .NET remoting to communicate with other application domains in the same process.

.Net Winforms Smart Client Apps development is about creating client side desktop applications that have considerable processing done at the client side, these applications are intelligent or smart to get the data and display it to the user in a presentable way that is fast and flexible.

Win Forms development is about creating desktop based application using .NET framework. These applications are expected to run in Microsoft Windows platforms

Windows Smart client applications are easily deployed and managed client applications developed in .NET that provide an adaptive and interactive experience by leveraging local resources and intelligently connecting to distributed data sources.

The Composite UI Application Block is part of Microsoft patterns and practices that are designed to help Microsoft .NET developers build complex, enterprise-ready Windows Forms-based solutions. It provides a proven architecture and implementation that helps you to build applications using the common patterns found in line-of-business front-end applications.

A Windows Service is created using development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio. Windows provides an interface called the Service Control Manager that manages the starting and stopping of services. An application that wants to be a service needs to first be written in such a way that it can handle start, stop, and pause messages from the Service Control Manager. Then, in one or more API calls, the name of the service and other attributes such as its description are registered with the Service Control Manager.

Microsoft Windows services, formerly known as WIN NT services, enable developers create long-running executable applications that run in their own Windows sessions. These services can be automatically started when the computer boots, can be paused and restarted, and do not show any user interface. These features make services ideal for use on a server or whenever you need long-running functionality that does not interfere with other users who are working on the same computer.

Microsoft Office System delivers a powerful collection of integrated programs, servers, services, tools, and technologies that can help developers build robust business solutions to streamline processes and connect people to information and to one another. Developers can customize office applications to integrate with custom applications and thus provide a better end user productivity.

The VBA programming language provides the tools needed to create solutions when the macro recorder can't get the job done. VBA is such a powerful programming language that you resources with minimum programming skills can create a solution to virtually any problem you encounter in applications such as MS Excel.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System can help you take advantage of the productivity enhancements in the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 to extend applications in Microsoft Office 2003 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system by using Visual Basic and Visual C# as the programming language. These tools include new Visual Studio projects in the VS IDE that can help the developers start creating Microsoft Office solutions.

.Net Migration Services is all about coming up with an approach to migrate legacy based applications built in older technologies into the latest .NET based technologies. The advantages can be in terms of flexibility, performance, security and ease of maintenance.

Windows System Programming is about coding using low level Windows SDK or API. These applications are generally developed to write windows utilities that can interact with system based resources and also at an OS level

The Win32 application programming interface (API) defines the 32-bit members of the Windows operating system family from the programmer's point of view. Some members of the Windows family use the entire Win32 API, while others use subsets.

A WIN32 application is a program that runs on a PC using a Microsoft operating system. The win32 api is the name of the Microsoft software library that opens up "windows" and allows interaction between the user (via keyboard and mouse) and the computer.

The Windows API, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was formerly called the Win32 API; however, the name Windows API more accurately reflects its roots in 16-bit Windows and its support on 64-bit Windows. The Microsoft Windows SDK (Software Development Kit) is available for Windows, which provides documentation and tools to enable developers to create software using the Windows API and associated Windows technologies.

The Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC) is a library provided by Microsoft that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework. Classes are defined for many of the handle-managed Windows objects and also for predefined windows and common controls.

The Microsoft Windows SDK is a set of tools, code samples, documentation, compilers, headers, and libraries that developers can use to create applications that run on Microsoft Windows operating systems. The Windows SDK combines two formerly separate SDKs: the Platform SDK (PSDK) and the .NET Framework SDK.

Microsoft SQL Server is a database management and analysis system for data driven and data incentive solutions. SQL Server 2008, the latest version in the SQL Server series from Microsoft, includes enhanced XML support, integration of .NET Framework objects in databases, improved integration with Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft Office System, as well as improved analysis, reporting, and data integration services.

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a server-based report generation software system from Microsoft. It can be used to prepare and deliver a variety of interactive and printed reports. Reporting services features a web services interface to support the development of custom reporting applications.

SQL Server Analysis Services adds OLAP and data mining capabilities for SQL Server databases. The OLAP engine supports MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP storage modes for data. Analysis Services supports the XML for Analysis standard as the underlying communication protocol.

Data mining is the process of discovering actionable information from large sets of data. Data mining uses mathematical analysis to derive patterns and trends that exist in data. Typically, these patterns cannot be discovered by traditional data exploration because the relationships are too complex or because there is too much data

SQL Server Integration Services is used to integrate data from different data sources. Integration Services includes GUI tools to build data extraction workflows integration various functionality such as extracting data from various sources, querying data, transforming data including aggregating, duplication and merging data, and then loading the transformed data onto other sources, or sending e-mails detailing the status of the operation as defined by the user

Business Intelligence Development Studio is Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 with additional project types that are specific to SQL Server business intelligence. Business Intelligence Development Studio is the primary environment that developers can use to develop business solutions that include Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services projects.

SQL Data warehouses support business decisions by collecting, consolidating, and organizing data for reporting and analysis with tools such as online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining. Although data warehouses are built on relational database technology, the design of a data warehouse database differs substantially from the design of an online transaction processing system (OLTP) database

Online analytical processing, or OLAP is an approach to quickly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining. The typical applications of OLAP are in business reporting for sales, marketing, management reporting, business process management (BPM), budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and similar areas.

ADO.NET is a set of computer software components that can be used by programmers to access data and data services. It is a part of the base class library that is included with the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is commonly used by programmers to access and modify data stored in relational database systems, though it can also be used to access data in non-relational sources. ADO.NET is sometimes considered an evolution of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) technology, but was changed so extensively that it can be considered an entirely new product.

The .NET Framework is an integral Windows component that supports building and running the next generation of applications and XML Web services.

The Microsoft Enterprise Library is a collection of reusable software components (application blocks) designed to assist software developers with common enterprise development cross-cutting concerns (such as logging, validation, data access, exception handling, and many others). Application blocks are a type of guidance; they are provided as source code, test cases, and documentation that can be used "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on complex, enterprise-level line-of-business development projects.

The Enterprise Library Data Access Application Block simplifies development tasks that implement common data access functionality. Applications can use this application block in a variety of situations, such as reading data for display, passing data through application layers, and submitting changed data back to the database system. The application block includes support for both stored procedures and in-line SQL.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 is a platform for productive, integrated, and extensible software development life-cycle tools that helps software teams by improving communication and collaboration throughout the software development process.

Visual Studio Team System consists of 5 products, which can be categorized into server-side and client-side applications. Microsoft encourages companies using Team System to make use of the Microsoft Solutions Framework, a metamodel which describes business and software engineering processes to help implement an effective software development process. Team System supports two conceptual frameworks for software development, Agile and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). Other frameworks can be added as well to support other methodologies.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Architecture Edition contains the Distributed System Designers. The Distributed System Designers are the first deliverable of the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), aimed at improving the design and validation of distributed systems. The Distributed System Designers give software architects, infrastructure architects, operations managers, and developers the ability to increase the predictability of success by visually constructing service-oriented solutions that can be validated against their operational environments prior to deployment

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition provides advanced development tools that enable teams to build reliable, mission critical services and applications.

You can use Visual Studio Team System Database Edition to help manage the development life cycle of your databases as an important part of your application development. You can use Database Edition to implement the concept of an isolated development environment for each database professional. Team members can work on schema-related activities without interfering with other team members or putting the production environment at risk. By managing database change, you can provide better communication and closer coordination among developers of software and databases.

Visual Studio Team System Test Edition includes a suite of test tools that are integrated closely with Visual Studio; they work not only in their own testing framework, but also within a larger framework of software life cycle tools.

Team Foundation is a collection of collaborative technologies that support a team effort to deliver a product. While the Team Foundation technologies are typically employed by a software team to build a software product, they can also be used on other types of projects.

Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) is a set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, and guidelines for delivering information technology solutions from Microsoft. MSF is not limited to developing applications only, it is also applicable to other IT projects like deployment, networking or infrastructure projects. MSF does not force the developer to use a specific methodology (Waterfall, Agile) but lets them decide what methodology to use.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that provides the tools and capabilities needed to create and easily maintain a clear picture of customers, from first contact through to purchase and post-sales. With modules for sales, marketing, and customer service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers a fast, flexible, and affordable solution that drives consistent, measurable improvements in every business process, enabling closer relationships with customers and helping to achieve new levels of profitability.

This development is used for building customized embedded OS designs based on the Microsoft Windows CE OS. Platform Builder that comes with all development tools necessary for design, create, build, test, and debug a Windows CE-based OS design. The IDE provides a single integrated workspace in which you can work on both OS designs and projects.

ASP.NET AJAX is the free Microsoft AJAX framework for building highly interactive and responsive web applications that work across all popular browsers. The ASP.NET AJAX framework includes Server-Side ASP.NET AJAX, Client-Side ASP.NET AJAX, the AJAX Control Toolkit, and the jQuery library. ASP.NET AJAX enables developers to choose their preferred method of AJAX development, whether it is server-side programming, client-side programming, or a combination of both.

Java development includes the developed of software applications using the Java programming language, its various platforms and related tools and technologies

Java applications can be developed using an appropriate Java platform. Each platform suits a specific type of application development.

Java Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is used for server programming. It has libraries for deploying distributed, multi-tier java software.

The Java Standard Edition (J2SE) is used to deploy portal applications. It consists of a virtual machine to be used along with a set of libraries

Java Micro Edition (J2ME) is the platform for developing applications suited for mobile devices and embedded systems.

Java Enterprise Development involves using the Java framework, inter-related tools and technologies along with an application server for deploying enterprise wide applications.

Java Web development involves the development of either service oriented web applications or consumer based web applications using the Java development environment

Java client development involves the development of client side applications in a client server architecture.

Java Swing is a widget toolkit and is part of the Sun Microsystems's Java Foundation Classes (JFC) API. Java Swing development allows developers to make lightweight GUI clients.

Java Struts development involves using the Apache struts open source web application framework for developing Java enterprise applications

Servlets are Java programming language objects that dynamically process requests and construct responses. The Java Servlet API allows a software developer to add dynamic content to a Web server using the Java platform.

Java Server Faces is a Java based web application framework used in the development of user interfaces for Java enterprise applications.

JDBC is an API that defines how a client access a database in the Java development environment

Applet are programs that are written in the Java programming language and are included as part of an HTML page

Spring is an open source application framework for the Java platform and has extensions for building web applications on top of the Java Enterprise platform.

Hibernate is an object-relational mapping (ORM) library Java, used for mapping from Java classes to database tables

JavaBeans are reusable software components for Java that can be manipulated visually in a builder tool.

Java Sever Pages is a server side Java technology allowing developers to create dynamically generated web pages in response to a web client request.

A Java application server acts as an API to expose business logic and processes for use by 3rd party applications.

The Eclispe IDE is an open source software development environment that comprises of an IDE and a set of plug-ins that extend its functionality

The Java NetBeans IDE is used for the development of applications using modular software components.

Mobile development refers to developing software applications for use on mobile devices, PDA, a and Smart Phones. Mobile software development is basically targeted to a specific platform, handset manufacturer, carrier network and in some cases, the underlying chipset and wireless technology.

Java mobile development refers to the design and development of mobile software applications on the K2ME platform. Apart from the J2ME platform, developers utilize a variety of tools, IDE's and extensions to facilitate Java mobile development

Windows mobile development uses the Windows mobile 6.5 SDK (latest version), the Windows Embedded CE platform and the .NET compact framework and related tools and extensions to develop applications for mobile devices.

The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF) is a version of the .NET Framework that is designed to run on Windows CE based mobile/embedded devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, factory controllers, set-top boxes, etc. The .NET Compact Framework uses some of the same class libraries as the full .NET Framework and also a few libraries designed specifically for mobile devices such as Windows CE InputPanel.

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.

The DirectDraw API is a part of the DirectX API and is used to render graphics in applications where high performance is important. DirectDraw also allows applications to run fullscreen or embedded in a window such as most other MS Windows applications.

iPhone development refers to the development of software applications targeted for the Apple iPhone and released for sales on the Apple App store. iPhone development starts with the iPhone SDK as well as a set of simulators, IDE's and other tools that facilitate iPhone software development. iPhone application development is done using Objective C as the programming language.

Xcode is the IDE in which iPhone applications are developed. The Xcode suite includes a modified version of free software GNU Compiler Collection and supports C, C++, Fortran, Objective-C, Objective-C++, Java, AppleScript, Python and Ruby source code with a variety of programming models. The Xcode suite also includes most of Apple's developer documentation, and Interface Builder, an application used to construct graphical interfaces.

Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language, which adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language. Objective-C is the primary language used for Apple's Cocoa API, and generic objective-C programs which do not make use of these libraries

The Cocoa Touch API is one of Apple Inc.'s native object-oriented application program environments for the Mac OS X and iPhone operating system. Cocoa applications are typically developed using the development tools provided by Apple, specifically Xcode and Interface Builder, using the Objective-C language. Cocoa applications are considered to be those written using the Cocoa programming environment.

Blackberry development is the usage of Research in Motion (RIM) SDK, simulators, IDE's, plug-ins and extensions to development software applications targeted on Blackberry phones. Blackberry development is done on the J2ME framework with the Java programming language.

The Android platform is promoted by Google, along with the Open Handset Alliance. Android is open source, built on the open Linux Kernel, and allows Android developers to write managed code on Java based language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries.

Symbian is a mobile software development platform currently used by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and a few other handset manufacturers for software application development. Symbian application development is predominantly through C++ programming.

CodeWarrior is an integrated development environment (IDE) for the Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris and embedded systems. Specialized versions for Symbian OS also exist.

CodeWarrior primarily uses C and C++ compilers as the tools for application development.

BREW is a mobile and wireless application development platform promoted by Qualcomm. The Brew mobile platform supports application development in C/C++, Java, Adobe Flash as well as Trig. BREW is a software platform that can download and run small programs for playing games, sending messages, sharing photos, etc.

Wi-Fi is promoted by the Wi-Fi Alliance and refers to products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards and facilitates interoperability between different wireless devices.

Global Positioning System (GPS) provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users. GPS has become a widely used aid to navigation worldwide, and a useful tool for map-making, land surveying, commerce, scientific uses, tracking and surveillance. The technology has become a mainstay of transportation systems worldwide, providing navigation for aviation, ground, and maritime operations.

Wireless Application Protocol (commonly referred to as WAP) is an open international standard[1] for application layer network communications in a wireless communication environment. Its main use is to enable access to the Mobile Web from a mobile phone or PDA. A WAP browser provides all of the basic services of a computer based web browser but simplified to operate within the restrictions of a mobile phone, such as its smaller view screen. WAP sites are websites written in, or dynamically converted to, WML (Wireless Markup Language) and accessed via the WAP browser.

General packet radio service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data service available to users of the 2G cellular communication systems global system for mobile communications (GSM), as well as in the 3G systems.

Bluetooth is an open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs). It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.

The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) defines physical specifications communications protocol standards for the short-range exchange of data over infrared light, for uses such as personal area networks (PANs).

3GS is a standard for the new iPhone model propagated by Apple. 3GS denoted significant improvements in the earlier 3G technology, in the areas of performance and media. The 3G S performs much faster than the 3G, with Apple claiming an overall two-fold increase in speed.

Gears is a a browser plug-in from Google that enables development of off-line browser applications. Blackberry has introduced Gears support in 2009, and will enable developers to create highly-responsive, standalone web applications on BlackBerry smartphones that can be used both in and out of network coverage. Support for Gears will include local cache, database and multi-threaded JavaScript execution, which allows web application functions to run in the background.

Adobe Flash Lite is a lightweight version of Adobe Flash Player, a software application published by Adobe Systems. This version is intended for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices like Chumby and iRiver, and allows users of these devices to view multimedia content and applications developed using Adobe's Flash tools, which had previously been available only on personal computers.

Rich Internet Applications are extremely interactive, user friendly software products or web-sites that have been developed with UI as well as animation technologies. Compared to standard HTML based solutions, RIA development empowers web applications with solutions that are consistent, targeted, responsive and intelligent. RIA based applications are especially suited for online registrations, online shopping and data analysis.

JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications that can run across a wide variety of connected devices. The current release (JavaFX 1.2) enables building applications for desktop, browser and mobile phones. TV set-top boxes, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players and other platforms are planned. JavaFX is fully integrated with the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) - JavaFX applications will run on any desktop and browser that runs the JRE and on top of mobile phones running Java ME.

Microsoft Silverlight is a web application framework, integrating multimedia, graphics, animations and interactivity into a single runtime environment. Initially released as a video streaming plugin, later versions brought additional interactivity features and support for .NET languages and development tools.

Adobe Flex is a software development kit released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform. Flex applications can be written using Adobe Flex Builder or by using the freely available Flex compiler from Adobe.

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich Internet applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, or Ajax, that can be deployed as a desktop application.

Google Web Toolkit is an open source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain complex JavaScript front-end applications in Java. Other than a few native libraries, everything is Java source that can be built on any supported platform with the included GWT Ant build files. It is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0.

AJAX is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create interactive web applications. With AJAX, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. The use of AJAX techniques has led to an increase in interactive or dynamic interfaces on web pages and better quality of Web services due to the asynchronous mode.

ASP.NET AJAX is a set of extensions to ASP.NET developed by Microsoft for implementing Ajax functionality.

Ajax.NET Professional, or Ajax.NET is a free AJAX add-on library for implementing Ajax functionality within the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Open source platforms refer to development of software in environments that support usage of open source technologies for programming, database development and server side development. Today open source platforms find increasing adoption in development of web based applications, rich internet applications and application software development.

LAMP development refers to development of applications using Linux as the target OS, Apache as the HTTP server, MySQL for database development and PHP as development language. Other scripting languages that are used are Perl and Python. LAMP development is becoming quite popular due to its open source credentials, low cost of development and the numerous tools and components available to facilitate rapid development.

Joomla is a content management system platform for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets as well as a Model view controller (MVC) Web Application Development framework.

The system includes features such as page caching to improve performance, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, website searching, and language internationalization.

Drupal is a free and open source Content Management System (CMS) written in PHP. It is used as a back-end system for many different types of websites, ranging from small personal blogs to Enterprise 2.0 collaboration and knowledge management uses to large corporate and political sites. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

A content management system (CMS) is a system used to manage the content of a Web site or web portal or intranet. A CMS allows the content manager or author, who may not know Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), to manage the creation, modification, and removal of content from a Web site without needing the expertise of a Webmaster. The features of a CMS system vary, but most include Web-based publishing, format management, revision control, and indexing, search, and retrieval.

The PHP server-side scripting language and the MySQL database management system (DBMS) are open-source products that are stable, versatile and capable of handling significantly high transaction loads. PHP and MySQL are ideal for quickly developing database-driven Web applications. PHP is a powerful scripting language designed to enable developers to create highly featured Web applications quickly, and MySQL is a fast, reliable database that integrates well with PHP and is suited for dynamic Internet-based applications.

Perl is a UNIX scripting language that is based on other programming languages such as C, shell scripting and AWD. Shell provides good text processing and text file manipulation capabilities. It is also used for network and graphics programming, as well as development of applications that require database access and CGI programming.

Python is an object oriented and functional programming language that is similar to Perl and Ruby in some ways. Python is most commonly used as a scripting language for developing web applications and finds extensive used in development of information security products, and embedded software products where it is used as a scripting language.

Common gateway interface (CGI) is a protocol used for interfacing of web applications with an application server. This is achieved through writing CGI scripts involving the usage of scripting languages such as Perl or Python.

MySQL is an RDBMS and is an open source database system that runs on a server. MySQL is used in application development in the commonly used LAMP development stack and is used in developing reliable and high scale and high traffic web based applications.

Apache lucene is a free and open source framework that supports full text indexing and searching capability within web based applications. It is an information retrieval library as is used in building search engines for internet or local single site searching.

Hadoop is an open source Java software framework that was inspired by Google File System (GFS) and Google MapReduce. Hadoop is used in conjunction with other tools and technologies to high capacity search engines and data intensive distributed applications running on large clusters.

Nutch is a subproject of Apache Lucene and is a framework that can be used to build an open search engine that uses the search and indexing components from Lucene.

Apache Solr is an open source enterprise class search server that is based on Apache Lucene library and other API's. It supports hit highlighting, caching, faceted searching, and also provides a web administration interface.

Lucene.NET is a replica of the Apache Lucene project that has been ported to C#.

Groovy is an object-oriented programming language for the Java platform as an alternative to the Java programming language. It is a dynamic language with features similar to those of Python, Ruby, Perl, and Smalltalk. It can be used as a scripting language for the Java Platform.

Grails is an open source web application framework which leverages the Groovy programming language for web based application development

Intellij IDEA is a commercial IDE for Java development. Intellij has also recently planned for availability as an open source community edition. Intellij supports major programming languages such as Java, Java Script, Flex, HTML / CSS, Ruby, Groovy, SQL among others.

The Zend framework is an object oriented web application framework under the new BSD license and is open source. Zend is implemented in PHP and is used in web application development.

A Javascript framework is JavaScript library of pre-written JavaScript controls which allow for easier development of JavaScript-based applications.

JQuery is a light weight Javascript library that is open source, and allows for easy development of highly interactive web applications.

PHP framework is a development environment used for creating web applications using open source tools and technologies. There are numerous PHP frameworks available to developers, the more popular ones being Zend, Symfony and CakePHP among others.

Ruby on rails is a open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language. It is commonly used within an Agile development methodology.

JRuby is a Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. JRuby is tightly integrated with Java to allow the embedding of the interpreter into any Java application with full two-way access between the Java and the Ruby code.