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Standard Business Glossary

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What is the idea?

This is related to my earlier post regarding establishing "Trusted Information" as an objective of the Recovery Act eco-system.  In "Trusted Information" the goals are strategy, governance, roadmaps and infrastructure.  One excellent comment focused on "meaning" and I have to say I agree 100% that the development of a data model or schema in support of the ARRA requirements needs to have the proper context and meaning for the data elements.  One approach for addressing the need for appropriate meaning within any eco-system is to have a consistent and well defined business glossary.  A business glossary provides definitions and context for any data element within a schema.  So in the scenario we are discussing in this exchange a core set of essential data elements needs delineation for the semantic usage and meaning which then permits the actual definition to be established.  The foundation for this level of accuracy in building a data model is called Master Data Management and with the proper implementation of a solution that defines the core of MDM it is a natural process to implement a business glossary.

Why is it important?

It is critical that a solution dealing with data on the scale required for supporting ARRA should have all the proper underlying technology to ensure that the meaning of the data can be recognized and properly utilized.  This brings context to the analytics and real value to the metrics that have been collected.

Submitted by JWJones from IBM (Consulting) on Apr 28, 2009

This idea is now closed to further comments.

Current number of stars: 3
based on 3 votes
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4 Comments

Member comment

Not sure exactly what this is supposed to be but generally, it seems to make sense. However, my guess is that it would take tool long to implement, given the ARRA timeframes (stimulus, remember!!) and probably needs to be considered as a longer term project. 

Comment from pkahn on Apr 28, 2009
Member comment

I agree with the intent of this idea. 

I would describe a glossary as an intermediate terminology product.  A glossary would show a list of authoritatively-specified terms relevant to a given domain, and may include some authoritatively-specified term definitions that apply in the context of that domain.

Comment from RoyERoebuck at One World Information System on Apr 28, 2009
Member comment

Semantic technology (commercial and open-source) and a public-domain terminology process is available that enables developing and maintaining a glossary or full terminology in a near-automated (est. 80%)fashion.

Comment from RoyERoebuck at One World Information System on Apr 28, 2009
Member comment

I like the whole concept of "master data management".  It appears that the data could be standardized and have business rules applied with regard to the format and quality of the information.  It's one thing to capture all the data that will be flowing between the Feds, states and local governments.  It is quite another to ensure that the data is in a format that one can be sure will support the analytics required for such a large scale business intelligence application.  Each organization needs to ensure that the data it is sending is clean and consistent.  These tools sound like they might be able to make that a reality.

Comment from Jerry703 on May 03, 2009