Business Glossary Construction

A business glossary helps you use common business terms when defining an entity or attribute.

Definition example:

“A CURRENCY-SWAP is a complex agreement between two PARTYs where they agree to exchange cash flows in two different CURRENCYs over a timeframe. Exchanges can be fixed over the term of the swap, or may float. Swaps are often used to hedge currency and interest rate risks.”

In the preceding example, defined terms within a definition are highlighted. Using this style makes it unnecessary to define terms each time they are used, because people can look them up whenever needed.

Providing base definitions of common business terms that are not entity or attribute names and referring to these definitions is a good idea. You can use a glossary of commonly used terms separate from the model. Common business terms are highlighted with bold or italic font, as shown in the preceding example.

This strategy seems like it can lead to going back and forth among definitions frequently. The alternative, however, is to define each term completely every time it is used. When internal definitions appear in many places, they must be maintained in many places. The probability that a change is applied to all of them at the same time is small.

Developing a glossary of common business terms can serve several purposes. A glossary can become the base for modeling definitions, and individually it can provide significant value to the business to help people communicate.