Techno Babble

by Bryon D Beilman

Every industry has their own lingo, vernacular and acronyms. Sales people may talk about ROI, Value Proposition or CRM , engineers may talk about AToD, VSA or SNR and the medical community has most of us beat with long names for conditions that need to become acronyms in order to be remembered (ADHD,AMA or CBC). IT has it's own lingos and sometimes as an IT consultant, I find that the client can get confused by what you are explaining especially if they are not IT savvy and it doesn't help if they all start with the same letter. Let me give you an example.

"If you want to connect via VNC from home, you first have to start your VPN client. You can work locally in VMWARE, or connect via the VPN route, depending on what you want to do " You might get a look like "Umm, VMC, VPWARE, Vwhat?????" Yes, all this technology can make our lives more connected and productive, and of course if you wait a few months it may all change. The acronyms and industrial lingo are a necessity to define technology and help everyone stay on the same page.

What is the best way to communicate ?
Communicating technology is important and there a number of ways to help explain solutions. There may be no "best way" but perhaps one of the better ways to do this is by using diagrams and graphics. A simplified example in Figure 1. shows the previous discussion with a diagram.

Figure 1. VPN Diagram Example

With a diagram or illustration , it can become easier to communicate many ideas with one picture. This does not replace the communication or explanation of what is happening. Use surrounding text AND talk directly with the person who needs the information is required with the diagram. The diagram still does not explain what a VPN, VNC or VMware is, so there can be accompanying reference to this diagram.

• VPN - Virtual Private Network. - A private communication network that is established by encrypting traffic between two points over an insecure network such as the Internet. A VPN connection between the home user and the corporate network would behave like a slower connection on the corporate network.
• VNC - Virtual Network Computing - A graphical desktop sharing system that allows a remote user to control the keyboard and mouse of a remote computer while seeing the screen updates on their local machine. There are a number of free and commercial VNC software solutions.
• VMWare - A VM is a Virtual Machine. VMWare is commercial package that allows a second operating system to run inside the host operating system and effectively share the memory, disk and network. There are both free and commercial packages found at http://www.vmware.com

The details of the implementation or solution should be known by the communicator, but not necessarily in the diagram or the document unless it is needed for the solution. When trying to communicate to a non-technical audience, you may be trying to communicate how it will work at a high level, what the value is and perhaps the cost. Describing the encryption algorithms of phase 1 and 2 of the VPN or the RFB protocol of the VNC server may not add alot of value to the conversation.

It can be challenging for a technical IT engineer to communicate ideas to their customers, especially if there are many similar sounding acronyms. The customer just wants to be able to work, and perhaps doesn't want to know what happens behind the scenes. A few diagrams and a concise description of what is happening may help bridge the gap.