About Data GovernanceData Glossary - S
SaaS
see Software as a Service
Sandbox
A place for experimentation. In an IT context, a sandbox is a testing environment that isolates untested code changes and experimentation from the production environment. Sandboxes have different security controls than do live/production environments.
Scalability
The ability of a program, process, service, or application to perform its agreed function when the workload or scope changes.
Schema
A diagrammatic representation of the structure or framework of something. It is the logical and physical definition of data elements, physical characteristics and interrelationships. In the context of Data Modeling, it refers to a pecification for how a database is physically organized (also called the logical view of a database). It includes all the data elements in the databases and how these elements logically relate to each other.
SCM
an acronym for Supply Chain Management
Scope
The boundary, or extent, to which a process, procedure, certification, contract etc. applies.
Scope Change
Any modification to the approved project scope that will materially impact the project.
Scope Statement
A clear, concise definition of the effort to be addressed, it forms the basis for an agreement between the project and the project's customer on the scope of work.
Scrub
see data scrubbing
SD
an acronym for Software Development
SDLC
see Software Development Life Cycle
SDLC
see Software Development Life Cycle
Second Normal Form
The result of normalizing to ensure that a data model contains no partial key dependencies. In practice, when entities have compound keys, seek out any attribute that is dependent upon only part of the key. Whatever business thing isentifiable by that part of the key is an entity, and the 2NF violation is an attribute of that entity. (DMReview definition)
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Secure sockets layer is a security technology that is commonly used to secure server to browser transactions.
Segment
A segment is a part of a data flow, starting or ending with a split/merge of data. See also Split/Merge
Segregation of duties
A control that splits up execution of an activity into multiple roles which are assigned to different people.
Semantics
In a broad sense, the study of meaning. The relationships of characters or groups of characters to their meanings, independent of the manner of their interpretation and use. Contrast with syntax. In the context of Information Technology, Semantics Technology offer capabilities for extracting information from data and for deriving value from an organization's information collections.
Sensitive Data
Data that is private, personal, or proprietary and must be protected from unauthorized access.
Sequence Diagram
A UML diagram that shows the processes that execute in sequence.
Service Catalogue
A document listing all IT services, with summary information about their SLAs and customers. The Service Catalogue is created and maintained by the IT service provider and is used by all IT Service Management Processes. (Baseline IT definition)
Service Delivery
The core IT Service Management Processes that have a tactical or strategic focus. In ITIL these are Service Level Management, Capacity Management, IT Service Continuity Management, Availability Management, and Financial Management for IT Services. Service Delivery is also used to mean the delivery of IT Services to Customers. (Baseline IT definition)
Service Desk
As part of a Call Center, the Service Desk is the single point of contact between the Service Provider and its users. A typical Service Desk manages incidents and service requests, and also handles communication with users.
Service Desk Ticket
A generic term for a request or change order submitted to a Help Desk or Service Desk
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
An agreement between an service provider and a customer.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
A model for application construction that decouples server business functionality from client logic. The business functionality is organized as a collection of modules (services) each of which has a clear businessentity and strict formal interfaces. Theentity allows a requester to map a function to a service, and the formal interface enables any qualified requester to invoke the service without any information regarding its internal design. Behind the interface, the implementation of the service may be a single program or a flow of multiple programs and may include calls to a message broker. (Gartner definition) A service-oriented architecture is a collection of services that communicate with each other. The services are self-contained and do not depend on the context or state of the other service. They work within a distributed systems architecture. (DMReview definition)
SFA
acronym fo Sales Force Automation
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
A World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specification that facilitates the interoperability between a broad mixture of programs and platforms.
Six Sigma
A management philosophy that strives to reduce out-of-specification product or service delivery to the Six Sigma (i.e., less than one-in-a-million) level. As applied, it is a rigorous and disciplined methodology that utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company s operational performance, practices and systems. It is designed toentify and prevent defects. Originally applied to manufacturing and service-related processes, it can be applied to Information Technology. The term has also become a phrase that evokes theeal of near perfection.
SLA
see service-level agreement
Slice and Dice
Colloquialism for the capability to access a data warehouse through any of its dimensions equally.
SMART
An acronym for qualities of a goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time based.
SMB
acronym for Small and Medium-sized Business
SME
acronym for Subject Matter Expert
Snowflake Schema
Specific organization of a database, often used in Data Warehouses. It is similar to a Star Schema except that the dimension tables are decomposed into a tree structure with potentially many nesting levels. This dimensional hierarchy, which is normalized into a set of smaller dimension tables, can be depicted with a shape similar to a snowflake.
SOA
see Service-Oriented Architecture
Social Network Analysis
The use of information and knowledge from many people and their personal networks, involving collecting massive amounts of data from multiple sources, analyzing the data toentify relationships, and mining it for new information.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Rather than purchasing a software license for a number of users or CPUs and then "owning" that software fro some predetermined time, software-as-service agreements allow users to pay for a piece of software on a per-user basis.
Software Asset Management
The process responsible for management, control and protection of software assets throughout their lifecycle.
Software Developer
A person who creates and maintains application systems.
Software Development
A functional group responsible for developing, customizing and maintaining applications and software systems. Also known as Application Development, Software Engineering, and Systems Development.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
A systems approach to problem solving and is made up of several phases, each comprised of multiple steps: Typical phases include Planning/Initiation, Requirements Engineering, Business Design, Technical Design, Construction, and Testing.
Software Engineering
A functional group responsible for developing, customizing and maintaining applications and software systems. Also known as Application Development, Software Development and Systems Development.
Sparse
A fact table that has relatively few of all the possible combinations of key values.
Specification
A formal definition of requirements. A specification may be used to define technical or Operational Requirements, and may be internal or external.
Split/Merge
A split/merge is an object that either splits a data flow into several data flows so that it can send data to different destinations, or merges data flows from different sources into one data flow.
SQL
see also Structured Query Language.
SSL
see Secure Sockets Layer
Staging Area
A place where data is moved to, in preparation to moving it to its ultimate destination (such as a Data Warehouse). Staging areas are often required when it is too risky to move data directly to its destination without first examining it, or when further operations must be performed on the data. No user updating or analysis is performed on data in the staging area; rather, its contents are accessed only through programmatic means (e.g., by data transformation or cleansing utilities). Often, staging areas are fed by multiple sources. For ongoing data movement efforts, the contents of a staging area are refreshed and subsequently transformed or cleansed on a scheduled basis.
Stakeholder
Individuals or groups with a vested interest in the final product; A group or individual that has a vested interest in, is affected by, or is in some way accountable for the outcome of an undertaking.
Standard
A set of criteria for a process, activity, or object against which the result will be measured. Policies may require adherence to particular standards.
Star Schema
Specific organization of a database often used in data warehouses. In this organization, a centralized fact table (table with specific pieces of information of interest to the users of the warehouse) with a composite key (a uniqueentifier made up of several otherentifiers) is joined to a number of single-level dimension tables, each with a single primary key (or uniqueentifiers).
Stored Procedure
A stored procedure is SQL code placed in a special area inside a DBMS. Triggers are specialized stored procedures.
Strawman
Anea that is put forth to discuss and pick apart. The concept comes from the practice of using dummies made of clothing stuffed with straw for scarecrows or combat-training targets. Strawmeneas and concepts are supposed to be treated as a bundle of items tied together that can be dissected and discussed and replaced with more thoroughly-though-out alternatives.
Structured Query Language
Pronounced "SQL" or "see qwill." Structured Query Language (SQL) is a relational data language that provides a consistent, English keyword-oriented set of facilities for query, data definition, data manipulation and data control a language that provides an interface to relational database systems. It was developed by IBM in the 1970s, and is now a de facto standard, as well as an ISO and ANSI standard. It is compatible with HTML and XML. SQL queries take the form of an easy-to-understand command language that lets you select, insert, update, and locate data, as well as perform complicated actions.
Subject Area
A subject area, or domain, is a part of a Data Model that describes a collection of related entities. Examples are Customers, or Products.
Subject Oriented Database
An approach where, instead of building one massive, centralized data warehouse, organizations build numerous subject-oriented warehouses to serve the needs of different divisions.
Subschema
A subset of an larger data model, consisting of a smaller set of data elements. Subschemas are often created to present filtered, manageable views for application programmers or others.
Sub-type
A subset of a larger group of entities; the child in a parent-child relationship. For instance, "women" are a subset of "people." A sub-type entity is always involved in an inheritance relationship with a parent super-type. The resulting table can inherit certain attributes from the parent or be consolidated (along with other sub-types) into the parent table.
Summarization Table
In a Data Warehouse context, tables that are created along commonly used access dimensions to speed query performance. The redundancies introduced in this approach increase the amount of data in the warehouse and affect syncronization strategies.
Super-type
An entity that can be subdivided into other groups of entities. Also known as a parent entity. For example, "people" is a supertype that contains subypes of "Women" and "Men."
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer
Surrogate Key
A single-part, artificially establishedentifier for an entity. A common way of deriving surrogate key values is to assign integer values sequentially.
System
A number of related things that work together to achieve an overall Objective. For example: A computer System including hardware, software and Applications. A management System, including multiple Processes that are planned and managed together. For example a Quality Management System. A Database Management System or Operating System that includes many software modules that are designed to perform a set of related Functions. (Baseline ITIL definition)
System Integrator
An organization or an individual that performs system integration. Major system integration projects often require the assistance of a specialty firm that has the resources and expertise to manage a project plan that could last over several months or even years. This external vendor generally also assumes a high degree of the project's risks. (Gartner definition)
Systems Architecture
A discipline, process, and program focusing on integrating technologies and defining and describing the interfaces, parameters and protocols. One of the four Enterprise Architectures (with Application Architecture, Business Architecture, and Data Architecture). Sometimes called Technical Architecture.
Systems Development
A functional group responsible for developing, customizing and maintaining applications and software systems. Also known as Application Development, Software Development and Software Engineering.
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