Terms shift between teams
Sales, finance and product use different names for the same concept, or the same label for entirely different concepts.
Business Glossary
Business glossary: one shared language for business and BI
A business glossary brings clarity to business terms, their synonyms and their owners. MetricsMap documents terms and metrics together and connects their meaning to the technical metadata behind them.
See the workflowTraceable metadata
Definition
What does the entry mean?
Ownership
Who reviews and decides?
Technical trail
Which sources belong to it?
The starting point
Why scattered documentation is not enough
Definitions stay abstract
A term is described, but its link to KPIs, tables and the teams responsible for it is missing.
Synonyms make search hard
People search for MRR, Monthly Recurring Revenue or monthly recurring sales and end up in completely different documents.
The approach
From a single entry to documentation you can rely on
- 01
Pick a domain and audience
Start with one clearly scoped area and the terms that regularly cause misunderstandings inside it.
- 02
Capture term, definition and synonyms
Phrase the meaning without technical shorthand and add the common alternative names people actually use.
- 03
Agree on owner and review
Decide who owns the business meaning, who reviews changes and how outdated definitions get flagged.
- 04
Connect terms to metrics
Use the KPI glossary as a concrete entry point and map definitions, formulas and data sources to the relevant business concepts.
MetricsMap
Features for a metadata foundation you can trace
KPI glossary as the core
Metrics get definitions, synonyms, owners, status and review context in one place.
Technical metadata
Tables, fields and relationships add the origin behind each business term.
Shared search
Names, descriptions and synonyms help teams rediscover definitions that already exist.
Business terms and translations
General business terms with definition, synonyms, owner, status and an English label complement the KPI glossary and can be linked to one another.
Example: Active customer
The glossary records when a customer counts as active, which synonyms teams use and who owns the definition. Related KPIs additionally document the time window, formula and data sources.
Tell the terms apart
- Business glossary
- Defines the business meaning of terms, their ownership and their synonyms.
- Data dictionary
- Describes technical fields, data types and structures within specific data models.
- Data catalog
- Inventories data assets, models and metadata across systems and domains.
Frequently asked questions
Is a KPI glossary the same as a business glossary?
No. A KPI glossary specializes in metrics, formulas and measurement rules. A business glossary additionally covers general business terms and how they relate to each other.
Are general business terms available already?
Yes. Business terms are a dedicated entity with definition, synonyms, owner, status and an English label — complementing the KPI glossary and linkable to metrics.
How should a BI team get started?
With a few decision-relevant KPIs and the terms that regularly trigger questions. Definition, owner and synonyms deliver visible value fast.
Start with a shared KPI vocabulary
Document business terms and metrics in one place and give your team a shared, dependable language.
Start with a KPI glossary as your foundation