E

e-business

Simply doing business electronically, usually over the Internet. The two main types of e-business are business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B).

e-commerce

Consumers doing business with a commercial enterprise directly through computers and without other human intermediaries. SEE ALSO Business-to-Consumer; e-business.

Economic Value Added (EVA)

A value-based metric for performance measurement, value-based planning, and incentive compensation developed by Joel Stern and G. Bennett Steward III. EVA is calculated by taking operation profits and deducting a charge for the cost of capital.

edge

In graph theory, a connection between two nodes in a graph. Also known as an arc.

Edgeworth box chart

SEE chart, Edgeworth box.

edit and validate

Assuring data is created in conformance with business rules. Database integrity controls and software routines can enforce business rules.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Standards-driven technology for high-volume B2B e-business transaction exchange, linking application systems across enterprises, so that a transaction on one system at one company generates a like transaction on a system at another company. More sophisticated EDI implementations transform the way business procedures are executed to gain optimal productivity.

Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport (EDIFACT)

The international EDI standard developed by the United Nations, and maintained by the United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. EDIFACT provides a set of syntax rules for data structures, an exchange protocol for interaction, and standard communication messages that allow multi-country and multi-industry exchange. Can be compared to XML, however EDIFACT data is very cryptic, whereas XML is human-readable.

Electronic Document Management System (EDMS)

A system used to track and store electronic documents or images of paper documents.

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

The systematic collection of individual patient or population health information.

Electronics Record Archive (ERA)

A strategic initiative of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to preserve and provide long-term access to Federal, Presidential, and Congressional records.

element

1. SEE component.
2. For use with data, SEE data attribute.

elementary fact sentence

A sentence having one predicate (verb phrase) and one or more nouns or noun phrases which serve as subject(s) or objects; can also include modifiers with the verb or nouns, such as must, only, at most one, at least one. The basis for Object Role Modeling or Fact Oriented Modeling (formerly called NIAM). (Everest 2010)

Elementary Key Normal Form (EKNF)

SEE normal form, elementary key.

emulation

The process of providing results of one system using another different system, such that the results are identical even if the processes are not.

encapsulation

1. A method of communication protocol design which separates network functions from underlying structures.
2. In object-oriented design, the combination of structure (data and values) and operations (processes; program code) associated with an object. The processes use the data to act on objects.

encryption

The conversion of a recognizably meaningful character stream to an unrecognizable character stream by means of a cipher code, in order to secure data and prevent unauthorized access of personally identifiable information, and/or company confidential information.

encryption, private key

An encryption method where both the writer and reader use the same key to encrypt and decrypt messages or character strings, respectively.

encryption, public key

An encryption method where the key to encode the information is different from the key to decode the information.

encyclopedia/tool encyclopedia

A non-definable meta-data store used by an application development tool.

Engineers as Builders

Zachman Framework row name, matches Technology Physics.

enterprise

The scope of an organization as defined by that organization based on a purpose or point of view. An enterprise may be a business, not-for-profit, government agency, or educational institution. An enterprise has a purpose, goals, and objectives.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Technology that allows data sharing between unrelated systems in the organization, providing a single point of interface to which all applications and databases connect, resolving differences between systems, triggering processes and delivering data in the proper format to the proper destination.

enterprise architecture

SEE architecture, enterprise.

enterprise BI portal

A web-based approach to distributing business information, consolidating Business Intelligence objects (reports, documents, spreadsheets, data cubes, etc.) and making them easily accessible, subject to security authorization, to non- technical users via standard browser technology.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

SEE content management.

enterprise data

Data that is shared across more than one function within an enterprise, or is created and used by one function but still considered essential to the enterprise.

enterprise data architecture

Part of the complete enterprise architecture, including

SEE ALSO architecture, data.

Enterprise Data Fabric (EDF)

A data layer that separates data sources from applications, providing the means to solve the potential gridlock prevalent in distributed environments such as grid computing and service-oriented architecture.

Enterprise Data Management (EDM)

A structured program for managing physical data resources as they are used by the enterprise.

Enterprise Data Model (EDM)

SEE Data Model, Enterprise.

enterprise data modeling

The development of a common consistent view and understanding of data entities and attributes, and their relationships across the enterprise.

enterprise data strategy

A data strategy supporting the entire enterprise.

Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW)

A centralized Data Warehouse designed to service the Business Intelligence needs of the entire enterprise. An EDW adheres to an enterprise data model to ensure consistency of decision support data across the enterprise.

enterprise information architecture

An architecture for managing information contained in multiple formats across an enterprise. SEE ALSO enterprise data architecture.

Enterprise Information Integration (EII)

Technology providing custom views into multiple databases transparently to enable applications to more easily provide integrated real time read and write access across databases.

Enterprise Information Management (EIM)

A structured program for managing information as a strategic asset.

Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)

A server application component architecture defined by Sun. EJB is used to create application objects, and related content may be sent using Java server pages (JSPs).

enterprise model

The collection of enterprise data models, enterprise process models, and any other model addressing the entire enterprise in scope. The complete set of enterprise models is commonly called the enterprise architecture.

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)

An enterprise-wide program that provides a structured approach for deploying and evaluating a company's strategy in a consistent and continuous manner. It gives an organization the capability to effectively communicate strategy and ensure that business processes are aligned to support the deployment of that strategy.

enterprise process architecture

Process models of the entire enterprise at the contextual and conceptual level, typically including

enterprise reporting

1. The process of producing reports using unified views of enterprise data.
2. A category of software tools used to produce reports; a term for what were simply known as reporting tools.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Systems that tie together many of an enterprise's functions, including finance, manufacturing, sales and human resources. ERP systems enable analysis of integrated data to plan production, forecast sales, and analyze product and process quality. Many organizations extend the ERP architecture through Data Warehousing to support of more advanced reporting, analytical and decision support capabilities.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

The process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities of an organization in order to minimize the effects of risk on its capital and earnings. ERM includes not only risks associated with accidental losses, but also financial, strategic, operational, and other risks.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

A software layer that provides data between services on an event-driven basis, using standards for data transmission between the services.

enterprise storage

Storage designed for large-scale, high availability environments.

entity

1. Any concrete or abstract thing that exists, did exist, or might exist, including associations among these things e.g. a person, object, event, idea, process, etc.
2. In mathematics, is a single existent, such as an employee John J. Smith. (Brackett 2011)

Entity Attribute Relationship (EAR)

The presentation of a data model diagram which shows Entities, Relationships between (among) entities, and Attributes of entities, hence EAR.

entity extraction

The process of scanning unstructured documents to find identifiable entities, based on contextual clues.

entity generalization

SEE generalization, entity.

entity hierarchy

The set of connected parent-child relationships of which an entity is a connected part. SEE ALSO hierarchy.

entity instance

1. Generally, the existence of a thing or the happening of an event.
2. In data modeling, a single specimen or member of an entity type population. SEE ALSO object.

entity life history

The changes to the entity occurrence over its lifecycle.

entity lifecycle

The phases and distinct states through which an entity moves through time. A state transition diagram documents the entity lifecycle.

entity occurrence

SEE entity instance.

Entity Relationship (ER)

Any relationship or connection between two entities, concepts, or objects.

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Alternate form: ER Diagram, E-R Diagram

The graphical diagram for an Entity Relationship data model. The underlying data model generally includes more semantics than is or can be represented in the view shown on the diagram, e.g., some business rules.

entity relationship model

1. Generally, a record-based data modeling scheme that focuses on entities and relationships in the presentation of data model diagrams, thus suppressing the display of attributes. A true ER model allows multi-valued data items and repeating groups of items (nested relations, thus violating first normal form), retains M:N relationships, attributed relationships, subtypes/supertypes, ternary and higher-order relationships, none of which can be represented directly in a relational data model. A true ER model generally excludes (defers) the representation of entity identifiers and foreign keys. Originally proposed and named by Peter Chen (1976).
2. In relational modeling, the most popular style of data model, defining entities and the business relationships between the entities. Some more detailed models include also some of the attributes of these entities, usually those involved in the relationships as keys.

entity set

In mathematics, is a group of like entities, such as Employee. (Brackett 2011)

entity type

A population of entity instances which conform to the same data definition or schema, often synonymous with object type or class. An entity type represents a class of objects in the users' universe of discourse, their world represented in a data model. They may be persons, places, things, abstract concepts, events, etc. of interest to the enterprise. (Everest 2010)

entity, business

Something of interest to an organization. It may be concrete or an abstract concept. May be represented by a data entity in a data model. (Everest 2010) SEE ALSO entity type.

entity, event

Discrete occurrences that are noted by time stamps or other ordering attributes.

entity, kernel

An entity that is at the top of a hierarchy, the basic high-level entity.

entity, reference

An entity that classifies something else, or that something else refers to for clarity.

entropy

The measurement of uncertainty in an outcome, or randomness in a system.

environment

1. In the computer technology context, it refers to the conditions surrounding data, such as databases, data formats, servers, network, and any other components that affect the data.
2. In a business context, the influencing factors on business performance.

environmental element

An aspect of an organization and its business processes defined in the DAMA-DMBOK Functional Framework. The seven environmental elements are Goals & Principles, Activities, Deliverables, Roles & Responsibilities, Practices & Techniques, Technology, and Organization & Culture.

epistemology

A branch of philosophy that studies the nature of truth and knowledge.

equivalence

A relationship where each side implies or replaces the other; interchangeable.

ergonomics

The study of how technology affects the health of the human body. Also known as biotechnology.

error

1. An incorrectly stated, inaccurate, or no longer valid fact.
2. An incorrect action taken in a process, usually resulting in a defect.

error rate

1. The frequency with which errors occur in transactions. Also called the failure rate.
2. In data quality, the percentage of data that is incorrect, inaccurate, or no longer true. Also called the data defect rate.

essential

Adjective. Required, critical.

estimate

The particular value yielded by an estimator or an estimate process in a given set of circumstances.

Ethernet

A local area network protocol developed by Xerox in cooperation with DEC and Intel. Ethernet uses a bus topology and supports transfer rates of 10 Mbps. The Ethernet specification served as the basis for the IEEE 802.3 standard, which specifies the physical and lower software layers.

ethics

In general, a social system's rules of behavior with which all members of that social system are expected to comply. Contrast with morals. SEE ALSO professional ethics.

evaluational data

Subject oriented, integrated, time variant, non-volatile collections of data in support of management's decision-making process. They are used to evaluate the business and usually contain summary data with some capability to drill down to detail data. (Brackett 2011)

event

The occurrence of some action of interest to the enterprise, usually characterized at a point in time. For a period of time, recognizing that a process may span a duration of time, the start and stop of the process would be the events. SEE ALSO transaction.

event analysis

A process of analyzing notifications and taking action based on the notification content.

event data

Data about business events (often system transactions) that have historic significance, or are needed for analysis by other systems. Event data is atomic data that may be aggregated.

event entity

SEE entity, event.

event tree

SEE chart, event tree.

Event-driven Process Chain (EPC)

A type of flowchart used for Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Business Process Improvement. Consists of a sequence of events in a process, the functions that execute following that event, the inputs, supporting systems, outputs and organization units supporting that function, the control flows between events and functions, and logical decision points (branch/merge, fork/join, and OR).

Exabyte (Eb)

One thousand Petabytes.

EXCEPT

A SQL set operator that returns one tabular SELECT answer sets with consistent column structures from two answer sets where rows in the 'left' table do not have matches in the 'right' table using the join conditions.

eXchangeable Faceted Metadata Language (XFML)

An open XML specification for defining and sharing faceted classifications.

exclusivity

Characteristic of a relationship that expresses “at most one.”

executive data steward

A role held by a senior manager sitting on the Data Governance Council, accountable for the data quality and data practices within a department, for planning and oversight of data management programs, and appointment of other data stewards. Sometimes referred to as a strategic data steward.

Executive Information System (EIS)

Business Intelligence software products provide sets of reports (“briefing books”) to top-level executives. They offer strong reporting and drill-down capabilities, along with ad hoc query against a multi-dimensional database, and most offer analytical applications along functional lines such as sales or financial analysis.

Executive Leaders as Owners

Zachman Framework row name, matches Business Concepts.

expert system

An artificial intelligence system driven by rules based on the skills and experience of one or more experts in a given field, so the system processes information the same way an expert person does. Expert systems are deterministic, versus neural networks, which are non-deterministic.

explicit

Adjective. Describes a formal expression of knowledge.

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)

The process of analyzing data to suggest hypotheses using statistical tools, which can then be tested.

Extended Binary Code Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC)

An 8-bit character encoding used by IBM. SEE ALSO ASCII.

Extended Entity Relationship (EER)

An Entity Relationship model developed by Toby Teorey, which includes more information, such as for ternary relationships and supertype/subtype relationships.

eXtended Intelligent Enterprise Architecture (XIE)

Foundational architecture composed of three core components: a zero-latency ODS, an enterprise portal as an access mechanism and extensive integration capabilities.

extensibility

Alternate form: extendibility

The ability to easily add new functionality to existing services without major software rewrites or without redefining the basic architecture.

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)

An XML-based markup language developed for financial reporting. It provides a standards-based method to prepare, publish (in a variety of formats), reliable extract and automatically exchange financial statements according to GAAP standards.

eXtensible Markup Interface (XMI)

A specification that contains rules for generating an XML document containing meta-data. (DAMA-DMBOK Guide, 1st Edition, pg. 252.)

eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

A tag-based markup language (a subset of SGML) containing a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form, defined by W3C with a tag set that can be extended. The tags enable XML documents to be self-describing data structures.

eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)

A tag language that describes how data is presented. XSL may also be used to transform XML data into HTML/CSS documents on the Web servers.

eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT)

A language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents. XSLT is designed for use as part of XSL.

extensional

Adjective. Defined by a specific and finite list of values, not by conformity to any rule or requirement. Opposite of intensional.

external data tracking

The process of monitoring the flow of data between data sites in different organization. (Brackett 2011)

Extract-Transform-Load (ETL)

1. Generally, an approach to data integration from multiple source databases to integrated target databases (Operational Data Stores, Data Warehouses, or Data Marts).
2. Commonly, a software product or tool that extracts data from a data source, converts data to a new format, and loads the data to a target database. SEE ALSO data integration.

extranet

An internal network or intranet opened to selected business partners. Suppliers, distributors, and other authorized users can connect to a company’s network over the Internet or through private networks.

eXtreme Programming (XP)

An updated approach to Rapid Application Development using object-oriented techniques and a minimum of specifications.

extrinsic

Adjective. Describes a property that is nonspecific and unessential to a thing or event.