Glossary - D

data
the information represented in a manner suitable for communication, processing, storage, and used by manual and automated means.
Contrast with content.
database
a cohesive collection of persistent data and the associated program that manages it so that one or more applications can add, modefy, retrieve, and delete the data without concern for the data's structure or organization.
database administration
the operations task of maintaining, modifying, tuning, and expanding one or more databases.
database administrator
the role that is played when a person administers one or more databases in a production environment.
database architect
the role that is played when a person develops the database aspects of the system and software architecture.
Contrast with business architect, hardware architect, information architect, security architect, software architect, and system architect.
database architecture
the architecture of an application’s or business’s databases including number, type, location, overall content, and usage.
database architecting
the architecting subactivity during which the application’s database architecture is produced.
database design
the design subactivity involving the design of the conceptual, logical, and physical structure of one or more databases.
database design document (DBDD)
the design work product that formally documents the design of all databases in the application.
database engineer
the role that is played when a person designs, implements, and installs an application’s database(s).
database inspection team
the team that inspects the work products that are produced by the the database team.
database integration testing
the integration testing to determine if the application software components interface properly with the database(s).
database languages
a language use to define and query a database.
database server
a server computer used to handle persistence and the associated communication with disk or tape libraries.
database team
the team that is responsible for the databases of an application or center.
data center
a facility housing the one or more production environments (e.g., server computers, network connectivity devices, databases, applications) that is used by an organization to perform data processing for user organizations.
data center architecture document
the work product that formally documents the design of a data center that hosts one or more applications.
data center architecting
the architecting subactivity involving the architecting of a data center.
data center implementation
the implementation subactivity involving the construction of a data center.
data center manager
the role that is played when a person performs management tasks for one or more data centers.
data component
an implementation work product modeling a cohesive collection of data that is part of the system.
data component design
the design subactivity involving the design of an application's data components (e.g., the content of a website).
data component implementation
the implementation subactivity involving the creation of one or more data components.
data entry clerk
the role that is played when a person manually enters data into a computer system.
debugging
the implementation task of determining the exact nature and location of a software defect and fixing it.
decision coverage
a test coverage criteria requiring adequate test cases such that each decision has a true and false result at least once, and that each statement is executed at least once.
Contrast with branch coverage.
decision table
a table used to show sets of conditions and the actions resulting from them.
decryption
a security mechanism that uses a key to unscramble encrypted data so that it is readable.
Contrast with encryption.
defect
an underlying flaw in a work product (i.e., a work product that is either inconsistent with its requirements or with the reasonable expectations of its customers or users).
Note many defects are caused by human errors.
Note that defect has no impact until it causes one or more failures.
Synonym bug.
defect analysis
the analysis of previously occurring defects to determine their underlying types and causes.
defect probability
the estimated likelihood that a defect will exist in the implementation of the associated use case path.
defect reporting
the task of reporting defects to the development organization so that they can be fixed.
defect severity
a measurement of the importance of a defect in terms of the impact of its associated failures.
Note: Defect severity is used to determine the priority of defect fixing and whether or not the system is ready to launch.
delegation
the implementation technique whereby an object or operation subcontracts all or part of its responsibilities to one or more server objects via message passing.
deliverable
a work product that is delivered to the customer.
delivery cycle
the cycle consisting of the collection of phases associated with the sale, development, maintenance, and post-transition follow-up of one or more applications for a single customer.
Contrast with development cycle and life cycle.
delivery management
the management task of administering the delivery of one or more completed work products to the customer organization.
delivery phase
the third application-level phase, during which the new version of the application is delivered to the customer organization and transitioned into use by the user organizations.
delivery process
a project-specific process for delivering an application or other work products to a customer.
demonstration
a verification and validation technique that consists of the execution of a application before selected members of the customer organization or user organization in order to present its capabilities and look and feel.
demonstrative prototype
a throw-away prototype that is used to demonstrate the feasibility of requirements or design decisions.
Contrast with comparitive prototype and elicitory prototype.
deployment
the activity during which the application is delivered to the customer organization and put into use by the user organization.
deployment inspection team
the team that inspects the work products that are produced by the the deployment team.
deployment plan (DP)
the work product that formally documents the plans for deploying, installing, and transitioning a tested application to its production environments so that it can be used by its user organizations.
deployment set
the cohesive set of work products that may be produced during the deployment activity.
Contrast with architecture set, design set, implementation set, management set, process set, requirements set, and test set.
deployment team
the team that deploys an application to its production environment(s).
design
n. (1) the local, tactical, detailed inventions and decisions concerning structure and behavior.
n. (2) the work products that are produced during the design activity.
Note that a design must be consistent with the overriding requirements and architecture.
Note that a design has local implications that drive and constrain the implementation.
Contrast with architecture and requirements.
vb. the activity of producing and documenting local, tactical, detailed inventions and decisions concerning structure and behavior.
Note that design refines and extends the architecture to the point where the design inventions and decisions can be directly implemented.
Contrast with architecture and requirements engineering.
design constraint
a design decision treated as a requirement and which therefore constrains the architects and designers.
contract with external API requirement, informational requirement, operational requirement, and quality requirement.
designer
the role that is played when a person produces the design of all or part of an executable work product.
design guidelines
guidelines that constrain the design.
design set
the set of all work products that are produced during the design activity.
Contrast with architecture set, deployment set, implementation set, management set, process set, requirements set, and test set.
desk checking
an quality control technique during which a person informally and individually checks the quality of a work product, typically while setting at his/her desk.
development cycle
the cycle consisting of the collection of phases during which a single application is developed and transitioned to a customer.
Contrast with delivery cycle and life cycle.
development environments
the complete integrated set of hardware and associated software tools that is used by the project team to develop an application.
Contrast with integration environment, production environment, reuse environment, and test environment.
development organization
an organization that develops one or more applications for one or more customer organizations.
development process
a project-specific process for delivering an application or other work products to a customer.
device
a hardware component without significant computational capabilities.
diagram
a graphical depiction of part of a model.
digital asset
any information (e.g., content, document) of an organization that is acquired, created, and stored in a digital form
digital asset acquisition
the digital asset management task of acquiring new digital assets
digital asset archiving
the digital asset management task of archiving digital assets that are no longer in use
digital asset creation
the digital asset management task of creating new digital assets
digital asset delivery
the digital asset management task of delivering digital assets to their audiences
digital asset disposal
the digital asset management task of properly disposing of digital assets that are no longer needed
digital asset maintenance
the digital asset management task of maintaining existing digital assets
digital asset management
the activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to manage an organization’s digital assets
digital asset management environment
an environment used to manage an organization’s digital assets
digital asset management planning
the digital asset management task of planning the performance of the other digital asset management tasks
digital asset management team
a team that manages an organization’s digital assets
digital asset publication
the digital asset management task of publishing digital assets
digital asset storage
the digital asset management task of storing digital assets
digital brand
the reusable digital information that is used in applications to represent the unique brand identity of an organization including:
digital brand board
a collage of images, phrases, and artwork that captures the character and essence of a digital brand and acts as a visual and emotional expression of the brand for user experience personnel to use when designing human interfaces.
digital brand communication plan
the deliverable document in the digital branding set that formally captures the plan for communicating the brand both internally within the client organization and externally to users of the customer’s applications.
Contrast with digital brand strategy and brand style guide.
digital brand description document
the digital branding work product that documents the proposed new digital brand identity of the customer organization's business enterprise.
digital brand prototype
an architecture work product produced during business engineering that consists of a paper or digital prototype capturing the essense of the customer organization's digital brand.
digital brand strategist
the role that is played when a person develops the digital brand strategy for a customer organization’s business enterprise.
digital brand strategy
the role that is played when a person develops the digital brand strategy for a customer organization’s business enterprise.
digital branding
the activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to create or improve the customer organization's digital brand.
digital branding set
the set of all work products that are produced during the digital branding activity.
digital branding team
the team that produces the digital brand and associated strategy for a customer organization’s business enterprise.
digital certificate
an authentication technique consisting of a digital object in which a trusted third party attests to the binding of a user name to a public key.
digital signature
a security mechanism consisting of an unforgeable electronic signature consisting of a block of information that is attached to a message and that could only have been created by the sender of the message. A digital signature is typically encrypted with the message sender’s private key and is validated by the receiver when decrypted using the sender’s public key. The digital signature also often contains a digital timestamp to to support nonreputability.
digital-to-analog (DAC) converter
an output component which translates a computer's digital outputs to the corresponding analog signals needed by one or more output devices, such as an actuator.
Contrast with analog-to-digital converter.
disaster
any incident or event (e.g., fire, earthquake, tornado, terrorism) that results in a major (multi-day) interruption of operations at one or more contact or data centers.
disaster recovery coordinator
the role that is played when a person leads the disaster recovery activity.
disaster recovery plan
the deployment work product that documents procedures for minimizing the impact of a disaster on an application or a contact or data center.
disaster recovery team
the team that is primarily responsible for performing disaster recovery tasks for an endeavor or center.
disk drive
a hardware component used to read from or write to a disk or diskette.
disk library
a hardware component modeling an automated library used to store massive amounts of information on disks. A disk library typically contains disk drives for reading and writing information, access ports for entering and removing disks, and robots for moving disks between storage cells, drives, and access ports.
Contrast with tape library.
document
a work product consisting of text and possibly graphics, typically printed on paper but possibly stored electronically.
documentation plan
a management set work product documenting an endeavor's approach to producing and maintaining documentation including:
Note that the documentation plan may be replaced by a section of the project plan.
document usability testing
the small component testing of a document against its associated usability standards and its usability requirements to determine if it contains any usability defects.
domain
an area of subject matter relevant to a business or application.
domain architecting
the architecting subactivity of architecting a single application domain (e.g., banking, telecommunication, etc.).
domain expert
the role that is played by a person provides authoritative information about a given domain of knowledge (i.e., subject matter area).
Synonym subject matter expert.
domain layer
a software layer containing the components and classes modeling the main concepts in the application domain.
domain model document (DMD)
the requirements document that formally captures the domain object model.
domain object model
a model capturing the semantics of a business domain in terms of the essential concepts (abstractions) of an application, their responsibilities, their relationships, and how they collaborate to fulfill architecturally-significant requirements.
domain requirements engineering
the requirements engineering subactivity of engineering reusable requirements for a specific domain.
draft content database
the content management data component consisting of a database storing raw created content prior to entering it into the content management system.