I often wince when I hear engineers at my current workplace say
"We need to do xxx during the bring-up of the board."
Basically, it is a board with a few components and as they test that the components are working, they are adding more or correct something, until they get a fully working board. Is there a better term for that than "bring-up"? Sometimes they use "during the bringing-up process".
The use of 'bring up' has a long history. For instance the Oxford English Dictionary (paywalled, sorry) gives as meaning #2, first used in 1484
To rear from childhood; to educate, breed.
and as meaning #1, first used in 1297
To bring into a higher position; to elevate, raise,
and as meaning #9, first used 1823
To develop, produce.
As a developer, I certainly think of my new boards as children. Flashing a single LED is often its 'first cry' (or maybe 'first steps', getting born successfully is not giving off smoke when power is first applied). It's no surprise that many developers use the phrase metaphorically to describe the process.
Any group of people will have their own language, or jargon. It can seem strange at first, until you get used to it. I'm sure I've heard software people talking about a server being 'up' or 'down'.
Regardless of how reasonable its etymology is, it's now an established phrase. By all means use an alternative phrase for the process if you like, but to kick back against others using it will not win you any friends.
"Bring-up" is indeed the proper term. It's different from testing or debugging.
Unlike software, hardware can self-destruct. For example, it can be wise to put a jumper between the switching regulator and the rest of the board. That way, if the regulator gets a bit cranky during its first power-up due to a design mistake and it outputs a very wrong voltage, the rest of the components won't smoke. Or you could slowly increase the current limit on the bench power supply, that kind of stuff.
Once it has been brought up and everything looks normal, then it can be tested to check if it works, then meets the design specifications, and debugged when it does not.
Basically, bring-up is a phase where you're concerned about stuff smoking. Testing is a phase where you're concerned about stuff not behaving exactly the way you want. It's important to distinguish between the two.
I don't know the actual origin or etymology of the phrase 'to bring up a board'. I'm not sure anyone does definitively.
But it's intended to be like bringing a new engine up to full speed ("bring the speed up", "bring it up to speed" etc.). Meaning doing it slowly and carefully, on the look-out for any breakages or signs of faults and failures, like parts going pop or feeling unexpectedly hot.
With a new board, you'd normally bring it up by loading it lightly or not at all, powering it (clicked straight on, or by slowly increasing the supply voltage) and then slowly using more features, loading more outputs and so on.
I don't think another phrase is needed - 'bring up the board' has been there in my start in the mid-80s and works great. Sounds like it's just a personal dislike you have for it, which is a harmless and natural-enough thing.
One of the first things I built professionally was a switch-mode power supply. That put rectified 240 V mains (about 340 V nom.) across electrolytic capacitors and you wouldn't want to be leaning over those if they went bang. So I very-much brought up the board rather than just switched it on. I was slowly winding the mains voltage up with a variac, from a distance away behind a table :-)
