📖 IT English Collocation Dictionary

97 verb collocations for software developers, organised A–Z. Natural word pairs that make your technical English sound fluent.

⭐ very common 📌 formal / written 💬 informal / Slack

A

address

  • address a bug

    "We need to address this bug before the next release."

  • address feedback

    "I'll address the review feedback by tomorrow morning."

  • address technical debt 📌

    "Q3 is when we plan to address our technical debt systematically."

  • address a bottleneck 📌

    "The team met to address the bottleneck in the data pipeline."

assign

  • assign a ticket

    "Can you assign that Jira ticket to me?"

  • assign a reviewer

    "Please assign a reviewer before you submit the PR."

  • assign permissions 📌

    "The admin assigned read permissions to the new team member."

B

block

  • block a merge

    "The failing tests are blocking the merge."

  • block a release 📌

    "This is a release blocker — it blocks the entire release."

  • be blocked on 💬

    "I'm blocked on the auth ticket — waiting for the backend team."

build

  • build a feature

    "We'll build this feature in the next sprint."

  • build a pipeline

    "The DevOps team built a new CI pipeline from scratch."

  • the build fails

    "The build failed on the merge check — check the logs."

  • build from scratch 📌

    "We built the API from scratch to avoid legacy constraints."

C

close

  • close a ticket

    "You can close this ticket once QA signs off."

  • close a PR

    "The PR was closed without merging due to a change in direction."

  • close out an action item 📌

    "Let's close out all action items from last week's retro."

commit

  • commit code

    "Always commit code with meaningful, descriptive messages."

  • commit changes

    "I committed the changes to the feature branch."

  • squash commits

    "Squash your commits into one before merging into main."

D

debug

  • debug an issue

    "I spent two hours debugging this issue."

  • debug locally 💬

    "Can you reproduce it? I can't debug it in staging."

  • debug a race condition 📌

    "Race conditions are notoriously hard to debug."

deploy

  • deploy to production

    "We deploy to production every Friday after the smoke tests pass."

  • deploy a service

    "The pipeline deployed the new service in under 3 minutes."

  • deploy to staging

    "Always deploy to staging first for smoke testing."

  • deploy a hotfix 📌

    "We need to deploy a hotfix to restore the login flow."

E

escalate

  • escalate an issue 📌

    "Please escalate this to the team lead if it blocks you."

  • escalate a bug 📌

    "The support team escalated the bug to P0."

  • escalate to management 📌

    "This scope change needs to be escalated to management."

F

fix

  • fix a bug

    "Can you fix that bug before the end of the sprint?"

  • fix a typo

    "I noticed a typo in the README — I'll fix it now."

  • fix a flaky test 💬

    "Someone needs to fix this flaky test — it's breaking CI for everyone."

  • quick fix 💬

    "This is a quick fix — should take less than 30 minutes."

flag

  • flag an issue

    "I want to flag a potential performance issue before the review."

  • flag a risk 📌

    "The architect flagged a security risk in the design document."

  • flag for review 📌

    "I've flagged this ticket for legal review."

I

implement

  • implement a feature

    "The team implemented the feature ahead of schedule."

  • implement a fix

    "We implemented a fix for the memory leak identified in the audit."

  • implement best practices 📌

    "This refactor helps us implement security best practices."

M

merge

  • merge a PR

    "The PR is approved and ready to merge."

  • merge into main

    "Don't merge into main without two approvals."

  • resolve a merge conflict

    "The branch has conflicts — please resolve the merge conflict."

monitor

  • monitor performance

    "We monitor performance dashboards in real time after every deploy."

  • monitor logs

    "Keep monitoring the logs for anomalies after the deploy."

  • monitor error rates 📌

    "Set up an alert to monitor error rates after the rollout."

O

open

  • open a PR

    "Let's open a PR so we can start the review process."

  • open a ticket

    "Open a ticket for that bug so it gets tracked."

  • open an issue

    "You can open a GitHub issue to track this feature request."

P

patch

  • patch a vulnerability

    "The security team patched the vulnerability within 24 hours."

  • apply a patch 📌

    "Apply the patch and restart the service to take effect."

  • patch a bug 💬

    "We patched the bug but the root cause still needs investigation."

push

  • push code

    "I pushed the changes to the feature branch."

  • push to production

    "We push to production after all checks pass."

  • push a hotfix 📌

    "We had to push a hotfix at 2am to restore service."

  • force push 💬

    "Don't force push to main — you'll overwrite other people's work."

R

refactor

  • refactor code

    "This module needs to be refactored before we build on top of it."

  • refactor a component

    "The PR refactors the login component to use hooks."

  • refactor for readability 📌

    "We refactored the function for both readability and performance."

release

  • release a version

    "We released version 2.4 last Thursday."

  • cut a release 💬

    "Can you cut a release once the hotfix is merged?"

  • write release notes

    "Update the release notes before publishing to the App Store."

review

  • review a PR

    "Could you review my PR before the standup?"

  • request a review

    "I've requested a review from two senior engineers."

  • conduct a code review 📌

    "We conduct code reviews for all changes to the main branch."

  • approve / request changes

    "If you approve the PR, it's ready to merge."

revert

  • revert a commit

    "We had to revert the last commit — it broke staging."

  • revert a change

    "Revert this change and we'll investigate in a separate branch."

  • roll back a deployment

    "We rolled back the deployment after error rates spiked."

run

  • run a test

    "Run all tests locally before you push."

  • run a pipeline

    "The CI pipeline runs on every push to the branch."

  • run a deployment 📌

    "We run deployments after business hours to minimise impact."

  • run a migration 📌

    "Don't forget to run the database migration in staging first."

S

ship

  • ship a feature

    "We shipped the feature two weeks ahead of schedule."

  • ship code 💬

    "The goal is to ship code that users actually need."

  • ship to production

    "We're ready to ship to production."

spin up

  • spin up a container

    "The test environment spins up a new container automatically."

  • spin up an environment

    "I'll spin up a dev environment for you to test against."

  • spin up a server

    "We spin up additional server instances during traffic spikes."

T

test

  • write a test

    "Write a unit test for each new function you add."

  • run tests

    "Run the full test suite before submitting the PR."

  • pass a test

    "All tests are passing — we're good to merge."

  • fail a test

    "Two tests failed due to a timing issue in the async code."

trigger

  • trigger a pipeline

    "Pushing to main triggers the deployment pipeline automatically."

  • trigger a build

    "You can manually trigger a build from the CI dashboard."

  • trigger a rollback 📌

    "High error rates automatically triggered a rollback."

U

update

  • update a dependency

    "Update the dependency to patch the security vulnerability."

  • update documentation

    "Update the API docs to reflect the new parameters."

  • update a ticket

    "Update the ticket status as you make progress."

  • roll out an update 📌

    "We're rolling out a critical update to all regions tonight."

V

validate

  • validate input 📌

    "Always validate user input on the server side."

  • validate a schema 📌

    "The API validates the request body against the JSON schema."

  • validate assumptions 📌

    "Let's validate our assumptions before we start building."

W

write

  • write code

    "Spend time writing code that future you will understand."

  • write documentation

    "Please write documentation before closing the ticket."

  • write a test

    "Write a failing test first, then implement the feature."

  • write a commit message

    "Write a clear, imperative commit message that explains the why."