Purpose:
A Glossary defines key terms relevant to a business domain.
Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®)
The term Glossary is the list of definition of terms and concepts used in the analysis, discussion, and classification. The creation of the Glossary should take place in the earlier stages of the project in order to facilitate knowledge transfer and understanding. They are used to provide a common understanding of terms that are used by the stakeholders. A list of terms and established definitions provide a common language that can be used to communicate and exchange ideas. A Glossary is organized and continuously accessible to all the stakeholders. Organization or the industries may use a term differently than how it is generally understood. The term Glossary is unique to a domain. It promotes common understanding of the business domain and better communication among all the stakeholders.
Organizations that maintain Glossaries often find additional uses for this information and are able to leverage the Glossary for future initiative. A point of contact is responsible for the maintenance and distribution of the Glossary through out the initiative is identified. The stakeholders will have an easy and reliable access to the Glossaries and the editing of the Glossary should be limited to the specific stakeholders. The Glossary is used for capturing the definitions as a part of enterprise documentation provides a single reference and encourages consistency. It simplifies the writing and maintenance of the other business analysis information including but not limited to the requirements, business rules and change strategy.
Some of the articles related to Glossary techniques are as follows,
- A Complete Glossary Technique - http://filmmakersfans.com/glossary-of-basic-filmmaking-techniques/
- Glossary: Terminology - http://mrarthursclassroom.weebly.com/uploads/6/4/9/8/64987635/7_16_a_glossary_of_film_terminology.pdf
- Business Analysis Glossary - https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/BusinessAnalysisGlossary.aspx
- Mind Map for Business Analysis - https://www.batimes.com/articles/mind-maps-for-business-analysis.html
- Glossary Handbook - http://analyst.by/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Course-Technology-The-Business-Analysts-Handbook.pdf
- Glossary Technique - https://austudent.elevateeducation.com/cms_uploads/docs/au/4.-pursuasive-techniques.pdf
- Glossary on Assisted Reproductive Terminology - https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/infertility/art_terminology2/en/
- The Glossary - https://www.bridging-the-gap.com/glossary/
- Best Practices for Glossary - https://www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/our_work/infrastructure/methodology/system_development/doc/Best_Practices_for_Business_Analyst.pdf
- Technical Notes for Glossary - https://en.cosel.co.jp/technical/productinfo/pdf/technotes.pdf
- Glossary Analysis - https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/eppcontent/glossary/app/resource/factsheet/4115.pdf
- Guideline for Glossary - http://ueberfachliche-kompetenzen.ethz.ch/dopraedi/pdfs/Mayer/guidelines_review_article.pdf
- An Overview of Glossary - https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Articles/tabid/115/ID/1427/An-Overview-of-Requirements-Elicitation.aspx
- Language and composition of Glossary - https://yale.learningu.org/download/f10e0a0e-1866-4958-9058-11e84f35ad24/H2976_APEngLangGlossary.pdf
- Glossary for User Centered Design Strategies - https://academic.oup.com/tbm/article/9/6/1057/5232646
Some of the tools used in the industry for Glossary are,
- Cause and Effect diagram
- Check Sheet
- Control Chart
- Histogram
- Pareto Chart
- Scatter Diagram
- Stratification
A Glossary is a list of items with accompanying definitions and it is not like a dictionary. A Glossary is deliverable document that are unique to business or technical domain. A Glossary is used to ensure that all the stakeholders will understand what is meant by terminology, acronyms, and phrases used inside an organization. It is used to facilitate learning about a new business domain. It is used to clarify the required documents by providing clear definitions of the important terms used inside the organization. It will encourage more effective communication among stakeholders by resolving terminology disagreements.
