Business glossary

A business glossary holds the official definitions of the concepts a company uses in its data and reports. It seems trivial until two departments present different "number of customers" figures because one counts everyone who has ever bought and the other only those who bought in the last twelve months.

For each term it gives: a plain-language definition, the formula or calculation rule if any, the Data Owner who approves it, examples and the systems or reports where it is used.

It complements the data catalogue: the glossary explains what a concept means; the catalogue, where the data representing it lives. It is one of the first pieces of a Data Governance programme because it settles arguments that come up at every committee.