Drowning in Acronyms

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development   Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)  

Why use plain English and actually say what you mean when an acronym does the job faster? What's the point of spitting out "metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor" when the acronym MOSFET does the job instantly? Isn't RARP more efficient than "reverse address resolution protocol"? You bet it is.

Acronyms have been around for centuries. Today, you're bound to hear at least one, often several, in most conversations by working adults. Every industry, including the government (especially the military), has its very own.

But the technical working stiffs of the world, technicians to CTOs (See, I'm doing it, too.) hold the lock and key on them. We all take acronyms for granted, but I bet you didn't know the trend was so pervasive, not to mention unstoppable. You're about to find out right now.

Amazon lists 33,764 books about technical acronyms. That's only a partial list, because it doesn't include all the self-published and online books on the subject. Tracking acronyms is more than a hobby and obsession for some researchers--it has emerged into a full-fledged business. Roam the Web and you'll find hundreds of niche technical websites that are chock full of them.

Project managers, you said. That's easy. Let's call it "projectspeak." Compared with computer and Internet acronyms, PM acronyms are easy to understand. A few …

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