Glossary

Agile development is a term used to describe iterative software development in order to shorten the software development lifecycle. Agile development teams execute the entire software development lifecycle in smaller increments, usually called sprints, typically 1-4 weeks long. Agile development is often contrasted with traditional or waterfall development, where larger projects are planned up front and executed against that plan. Agile development is an iterative approach to development with regular feedback loops or intervals. These iterations allow a team to be diverted to and productive in another part of a project while a problem or issue is resolved in another part.

Measure alignment includes using the same quality measures and value sets across settings and within multiple programs when possible. Alignment is achieved when a set of measures works well across settings or programs to produce meaningful information without creating extra work for those responsible for the measurement.

An analytic model is a visual representation of a causal pathway showing how the proposed key research question(s) and intervention(s) under consideration as reflected in the PICOTS framework are linked to their intended outcomes that require confirmation by evidence review to support related recommendations. The linkages in the model represent critical logical premises and presumed relationships among intermediate, surrogate, and ultimate health outcomes related to a specified clinical question..

Application Programming Interface (API) is a system of tools and resources in an operating system, enabling developers to create software applications. API is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

A computational artifact is anything created by a human using a computer. An artifact can be, but is not limited to a code, program, image, audio, video, presentation, or web page file.