Glossary
Business glossary
A governed list of business terms, each with an approved definition, an owner and a version history.
A business glossary records what an organisation’s terms mean: “active customer”, “gross margin”, “on-time delivery”. Each entry has a definition, an accountable owner and, in a well-run glossary, a version history.
What makes one useful
A glossary that only lists definitions tends to go stale. The ones that stay useful have three things:
- Ownership. Someone is accountable for each term and approves changes to it.
- Versions. A change creates a new version instead of overwriting the old one, so past figures can be explained.
- Connection to where terms are used. If the glossary does not know which reports and systems use a term, it cannot tell anyone when a change affects them.
The third point is where most glossaries stop, and where definition drift starts.