Editing Code name (section)

== Project code name ==
A '''project code name''' is a code name (usually a single word, short phrase or acronym) which is given to a [[project]] being developed by [[Private industry|industry]], [[academia]], government, and other concerns.

Project code names are typically used for several reasons:

* To uniquely identify the project within the organization. Code names are frequently chosen to be outside the normal business/domain jargon that the organization uses, in order to not conflict with established terminology.
* To assist with maintaining [[secrecy]] of the project against rival concerns. Some corporations routinely change project names in order to further confuse competitors.
* When the goal of the project is to develop one or more commercial ''products'', use of a code name allows the eventual choice of product nomenclature (the name the product(s) are marketed and sold under) to be decoupled from the development effort. This is especially important when one project generates multiple products, or multiple projects are needed to produce a single product. This allows for ''subprojects'' to be given a separate identity from the main project.
* To decouple an early phase of a development effort (which may have failed) from a subsequent phase (which may be given a "fresh start") as a political tool.
* To prevent casual observers from concluding that a pre-release version is a new release of the product, thus helping reduce confusion.

Different organizations have different policies regarding the use and publication of project code names. Some companies take great pains to ''never'' discuss or disclose project code names outside of the company (other than with outside entities who have a need to know, and typically are bound with a [[non-disclosure agreement]]). Other companies never use them in official or formal communications, but widely disseminate project code names through informal channels (often in an attempt to create a [[marketing buzz]] for the project). Still others (such as [[Microsoft]]) discuss code names publicly, and routinely use project code names on beta releases and such, but remove them from final product(s). In the case of Windows 95, the code name "CHICAGO" was left embedded in the [[INF file#Structure|INF File structure]] and remained required through Windows Me. At the other end of the spectrum, [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] includes the project code names for [[Mac OS X]] as part of the official name of the final product, a practice that was started in 2002 with [[Mac OS X v10.2]] "Jaguar". Google and the [[Android Open Source Project|AOSP]] also used this for their [[Android (operating system)|Android]] operating system until 2013, where the code name was different from the release name.