Using inclusive language
When writing code or documentation, we need to be inclusive and aware of the terminology used within our services. Historically, terms such as master/slave have been wide-spread within the technology industry, and are offensive.
The table below provides guidance for replacing offensive and outdated phrases with more inclusive alternatives.
| Non-inclusive term | Inclusive term |
|---|---|
| abnormal | atypical |
| blackbox | closed box |
| blackhat hacker | unethical hacker |
| blacklist | deny list |
| blue team | cyber defence team |
| disable | deactivate or turn off |
| dummy value | placeholder value |
| enable | activate or turn on |
| girls (group) | team or people |
| grandfather | legacy |
| greyhat hacker | hacktivist |
| guys (group) | team or people |
| housekeeping | cleanup or maintenance |
| man hours | person hours/people hours |
| man power | person power/people power |
| master/slave | primary/secondary |
master branch |
main branch |
| middleman | middle person |
| mob programming | team/group programming |
| native feature | built-in feature |
| normal | typical |
| pronouns when you don’t know someone’s | they, them, theirs or ask them |
| red team | cyber offence team |
| scrum master | scrum coach |
| webmaster | web administrator |
| white team | cyber exercise team |
| whitebox | open box |
| whitehat hacker | ethical hacker |
| whitelist | allow list |
| whitespace | blank or empty space |
| yellow team | DevSecOps team |
This page was last reviewed on 23 October 2024.
It needs to be reviewed again on 23 January 2025
by the page owner #operations-engineering-alerts
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