Chapter 5

• attribute: each characteristic or quality of a particular entity
• best practices: the most effective and efficient ways to accomplish business processes
• Big Data: a collection of data so large and complex that it is difficult to manage using traditional database management systems
• binary relationship: a relationship that exists when two entities are associated
• bit: a binary digit, 0 or 1
• business rules: precise descriptions of policies, procedures, or principles, in any organization that stores and uses data to generate information
• byte: a group of eight bits that represent a single character
• clickstream data: data collected about user behaviour and browsing patterns by monitoring user's activities when they visit a website
• connectivity: the classification of a relationship
• database management system: a software program that provide access to a database
• data dictionary: a collection of data elements
• data file: a collection of logically related records
• data governance: an approach to managing information across an entire organization
• data lake: a central repository that stores all of an organization's data, regardless of their source or format
• data mart: a low-cost, scaled down version of a data warehouse that is designed to meet the needs of a specific department or business unit
• data model: a diagram that represents entities in the database and their relationships
• data warehouse: a repository of historical data that are organized by subject to support decision makers in the organization
• entity: any person, place, thing, or event of interest to a user
• entity relationship diagram: document that shows data entities and attributes and relationships among them
• entity relationship modelling: the process of designing a database by organizing data entities to be used and identifying the relationships among them
• explicit knowledge: the more objective, rational, and technical types of knowledge
• field: a characteristic of interest that describes an entity
• foreign key: a field in one data table that uniquely identifies a row of another table
• functional dependency: a means of expressing that the value of one particular attribute is associated with a specific single value of another attribute
• instance: each row in a relational table, which is a specific, unique representation of the entity
• joint operation: a database operation that combines records from two or more tables in a database
• knowledge management: a process that helps organizations identify, select, organize, disseminate, transfer, and apply information and expertise that are part of the organization's memory and that typically reside within the organization in an unstructured manner
• knowledge management systems: information technologies used to systematize, enhance, and expedite intra and interfirm knowledge management
• master data: a set of core data that spans an enterprise's information system. example: customer, product, employee, vendor
• master data management: a process that provides companies with the ability to store, maintain, exchange, and synchronize a consistent, accurate, and timely "single version of the truth" for the company's core master data
• multidimensional structure: storage of data in more than two dimensions
• normalization: a method for analyzing and reducing a relational database to its most streamlined form to ensure minimum redundancy, maximum data integrity, and optimal processing performance
• primary key: a field of a record that uniquely identifies that record so that it can be retrieved, updated and sorted
• query by example: a method to obtain information from a relational database by filling out a grid of template to construct a sample or a description of the data desired
• record: a grouping of logically related fields
• relational database model: data model based on the simple concept of tables in order to capitalize on characteristics of rows and columns of data
• relationships: operators that illustrate an association between two entities
• secondary key: a field that has some identifying information, but typically does not uniquely identify a record with complete accuracy
• structured data: highly organized data in fixed fields in a data repository such a relational database that must be defined in terms of field name and type
• structured query language: the most popular query language for requesting information from a relational database