Artifact:  Glossary

Glossary	The Glossary defines important terms used in the project.
Role:	System Analyst
Template:	Word Template HTML Template
Examples:	Glossary - from the Wylie College Process Web Site Glossary - from the Course Registration System Inception Elaboration Glossary - from the Collegiate Sports Paging System (e-Business) Inception Elaboration
More Information:	Checkpoints:Glossary
Purpose Brief Outline Timing Responsibility Tailoring Annotated Outline (hyperlinks into HTML template in a new window)

Input to Activities: Architectural Analysis Assess Viability of Architectural Proof-of-Concept Use-Case Analysis Review the Business Use-Case Model Find Business Actors and Use Cases Review Requirements Find Actors and Use Cases Structure the Use-Case Model Detail a Use Case Detail the Software Requirements

Output from Activities: Capture a Common Vocabulary

Purpose

There is one Glossary for the system. The glossary provides a consistent set of definitions, which helps avoid misunderstandings. Initially, project members use the glossary to understand the terms that are specific to the project. However, this document is important to many specific activities, including:

• Developers use the glossary to make use of the terms when designing and implementing classes, database tables, user-interfaces etc.
• Analysts use the glossary to both capture the terms that are specific to the project, to clearly define business rules, and to ensure that requirement specifications make correct and consistent use of the terms.
• Course Developers and Technical Writers use the glossary to construct training material and documentation using recognized terminology.

Brief Outline

(hyperlinks into HTML template in a new window)

1.       Introduction        

    1.1     Purpose    

    1.2     Scope    

    1.3     References    

    1.4     Overview    

2.       Definitions

    2.1     <aTerm>    

    2.2     <anotherTerm>    

    2.3     <aGroupOfTerms>    

        2.3.1         <aGroupTerm>          

        2.3.2         <anotherGroupTerm>          

    2.4     <aSecondGroupOfTerms>    

        2.4.1         <yetAnotherGroupTerm>          

        2.4.2         <andAnotherGroupTerm>          

Timing

The Glossary is primarily developed during the inception and elaboration phases, because it is important to agree on a common terminology early in the project.

Responsibility

A Role: System Analyst is responsible for the integrity of the Glossary, ensuring that:

• The Glossary is produced in a timely manner.
• It continuously is kept consistent with the results of development.

Tailoring

In some projects the glossary will be the only artifact used to capture the business domain of the project. This is when neither business modeling nor domain modeling is performed.

If the context and scope of the business modeling effort is much broader than that of the software engineering effort, you may need to produce a separate Glossary specifically to business modeling. That glossary would then be the responsibility of the Business-Process Analyst.

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