observability
Internal state inference
Observability is the ability to understand a system's internal state by examining its external outputs.
The term comes from engineering and control theory but has become central to software operations, where it describes monitoring applications through logs, metrics, and traces.
A system with high observability lets engineers diagnose problems without guessing: We improved observability by adding structured logging throughout the pipeline.
The word emphasizes not just collecting data but making systems transparent enough to answer questions you didn't anticipate.
Range of clear sight
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- awarenessState of perceiving reality
- discoverabilityEase of being located
- explainabilityCapacity for clarification
accountability · auditability · traceability · introspection · legibility · comprehensibility
Standards for assessment
- logsCut wood sections
- tracesSlight remaining amounts
- alertsWarning notifications
- dashboardsVehicle information panels
telemetry · uptime · incidents · anomalies · thresholds · probes · agents · polling
Standards for assessment
Recurring arrangements or designs
- insightsPenetrating understandings gained
- correlationStatistical relationship measure
- aggregationCombined collection of items
- queriesQuestions seeking information
visualization · trending · baselining · profiling · histograms · percentiles · latency · throughput
Error removal from programs
- root-causeFundamental origin of problem
- diagnosticsMethods identifying problems
- incidentsDistinct notable events
- postmortemsExaminations of corpses
triage · symptoms · investigation · remediation · bottlenecks · regressions · correlation · reproduction
Decomposed application architecture
- containersObjects for holding things
- cloud-nativeDesigned for cloud environments
- APMSlang for partner
- PrometheusFire-stealing benefactor of mortals
visibility
Range of clear sight
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- awarenessState of perceiving reality
- discoverabilityEase of being located
explainability · accountability · auditability · traceability · introspection · legibility · comprehensibility
metrics
Standards for assessment
dashboards · telemetry · uptime · incidents · anomalies · thresholds · probes · agents · polling · heartbeat
metrics
Standards for assessment
patterns
Recurring arrangements or designs
- insightsPenetrating understandings gained
- correlationStatistical relationship measure
- aggregationCombined collection of items
queries · visualization · trending · baselining · profiling · histograms · percentiles · latency · throughput · dimensionality
debugging
Error removal from programs
- root-causeFundamental origin of problem
- diagnosticsMethods identifying problems
- incidentsDistinct notable events
postmortems · triage · symptoms · investigation · remediation · bottlenecks · regressions · correlation · reproduction
microservices
Decomposed application architecture
- containersObjects for holding things
- cloud-nativeDesigned for cloud environments
- APMSlang for partner
Prometheus · Honeycomb · sidecars · endpoints · pipelines
- metricsKPI, metric, KPIs, metrics, statistics
- monitoringmetrics, alerts, dashboards, continuous monitoring, logs
- control theorycontrollability, feedback loops, backstepping, passivity
- linear algebramatrix, linear equation, vectors, linear function, matrices
- microservicesmicroservices, container, containerization, orchestration, Docker
- control systemsfeedback control, closed loop, open loop, feedback loop, servomechanism
observabilityhiddenness
State of being obscured
invisibility · unobservability · opacity · concealment · undetectability
observabilityunobservability
Impossible to detect
opacity · inscrutability · opaqueness · untraceability · unknowability
observabilityunknowability
Quality of eluding understanding
inscrutability · hiddenness · inaccessibility · mysteriousness · ineffability
observe, observer, observant, observation, observed, observing, observance, observable, observers