Glossary

Page Maps

graph LR
  family["Reproducible Research"]
  program["Deep Dive DVC"]
  section["Reproducibility Failures Real Teams"]
  page["Glossary"]
  capstone["Capstone evidence"]

  family --> program --> section --> page
  page -.applies in.-> capstone

flowchart LR
  orient["Orient on the page map"] --> read["Read the main claim and examples"]
  read --> inspect["Inspect the related code, proof, or capstone surface"]
  inspect --> verify["Run or review the verification path"]
  verify --> apply["Apply the idea back to the module and capstone"]

This glossary keeps the language of Module 01 stable.

The goal is practical clarity: when you use the same words for the same failure patterns, the rest of Deep Dive DVC becomes easier to reason about.

Terms

Term	Meaning in this module
repeatability	The ability to rerun a workflow in roughly the same local setup and get the same or similar result.
reproducibility	The ability for another person to recover the same result later from the recorded artifacts, rules, and declared inputs rather than from private memory.
hidden state	Any influential condition, input, or side effect that shapes the result without being made explicit enough for others to inspect and recover.
undeclared input	A file, parameter, environment assumption, or manual step that affects a result but is not represented clearly in the workflow story.
local success	A result that seems fine for one person on one machine right now, without proving that the team can recover it later.
source-control boundary	The set of things Git is naturally strong at preserving, especially textual source history and deliberate edits.
result story	The full explanation of how a result came to exist, including data, parameters, environment, workflow steps, and trusted outputs.
social memory	Important workflow knowledge that lives mainly in people's recollection rather than in durable artifacts.
mechanical reproducibility	The part of reproducibility concerned with explicit state, recorded relationships, and recoverable artifacts.
tool boundary	The line between what DVC is meant to own and what still belongs to environment discipline, governance, scientific judgment, or release review.
trusted output	A file, report, or metric the team actually treats as authoritative in decisions, reviews, or releases.
workflow inventory	A structured description of a workflow's real inputs, assumptions, trusted outputs, and weak points before redesign begins.

How to use these terms

If a discussion in Module 01 starts getting vague, ask which term has become unclear:

• are we describing repeatability or reproducibility?
• is this input explicit, or is it hidden state?
• is Git preserving this well, or is it outside the source-control boundary?
• is this something DVC should own, or does it belong to a different tool boundary?

Those questions usually turn a fuzzy complaint into a useful diagnosis.