Business Glossary

Professional+

The Business Glossary is a curated dictionary of terms that your organisation uses to describe data concepts. It bridges the gap between business language and technical data assets — so when a stakeholder asks for "pass rate," every analyst uses the same definition and traces it to the same columns.

---

Why a Business Glossary

Problem	Glossary solution
"Pass rate" means different things to Finance and Product	One canonical glossary term with the agreed definition
Analysts build metrics inconsistently	Glossary terms linked to certified dataset metrics
New joiners don't know the data vocabulary	Searchable, browsable glossary onboards instantly
Regulatory audits require documented data definitions	Glossary terms with reviewers and governance workflow
Business and technical teams speak different languages	Terms translate business language to technical columns

---

Glossary Structure

A Glossary is a container. Each Glossary holds many Terms. Terms can link to each other (related terms, parent/child) and to data assets.

---

Creating a Glossary

Admin or Data Steward role required.

1. Navigate to Governance → Glossaries → + New Glossary.
2. Fill in:

Field	Description	Example
Name	The glossary's name	Exam Domain Glossary
Display name	Friendly label	Exam Domain
Description	Purpose and scope of this glossary	Defines all business terms relating to exam delivery, scoring, and candidate management
Owners	Data stewards responsible	data-governance@yourcompany.com
Reviewers	Users who must approve new terms	Chief Data Officer
Tags	Optional labels on the glossary itself	governance, exam

3. Click Save.

---

Creating a Glossary Term

1. Open the glossary.
2. Click + Add term.
3. Fill in the term fields:

Term fields

Field	Required	Description	Example
Name	Yes	The term as written in business conversations	Pass Rate
Display name	No	Alternative label	Exam Pass Rate
Description	Yes	Full, unambiguous definition	See example below
Synonyms	No	Other names for the same concept	Success Rate, Passing Percentage
Related terms	No	Adjacent concepts	Attempt, Score Threshold, Candidate
References	No	External URLs supporting the definition	Link to policy document
Tags	No	Classification labels	kpi, exam-core
Reviewers	No	Who must approve this term	product@yourcompany.com

Example term definition

## Pass Rate

The percentage of exam attempts in a given period that resulted in the candidate
meeting or exceeding the defined passing threshold.

**Formula:**
Pass Rate = (Number of Passing Attempts / Total Attempts) × 100

**Inclusions:**
- Only completed attempts (status = 'completed')
- Reattempts are counted independently

**Exclusions:**
- Voided attempts
- Practice/diagnostic attempts
- Attempts where the result is still pending

**Owning team:** Analytics Engineering

**Last reviewed:** 2026-01-15 by Jane Smith (CDO)

4. Click Save as Draft (goes into governance review) or Save (if you have approval authority).

---

Term Relationships

Glossary terms can be related to each other to build a navigable knowledge graph.

Relationship type	Direction	Example
Parent / Child	Hierarchical	Score is parent of Raw Score and Scaled Score
Related to	Bidirectional peer	Pass Rate related to Score Threshold
Is-a	Classification	Email Address is-a PII identifier
Synonym	Equivalence	Candidate synonymous with Examinee

To add a related term:

1. Open the term.
2. Click + Add related term in the Related Terms section.
3. Search for the related term and select it.
4. Choose the relationship type.
5. Click Save.

---

Linking Terms to Columns and Tables

The most powerful feature of the Glossary is linking terms to the actual database columns that store that concept.

Linking from a glossary term

1. Open the term.
2. Click the Assets tab.
3. Click + Add asset.
4. Search for the table or column.
5. Select it and click Link.

Linking from a table's asset page

1. Open the table in Calabi Catalogue.
2. Go to the Schema tab.
3. Click a column name to expand it.
4. In the Glossary Terms field, search for and select the term.
5. Click Save.

Example linking:

Table	Column	Linked glossary term
psychometric_reporting.scores	passed	Pass Rate (via SUM(passed)/COUNT(*))
psychometric_reporting.scores	score	Raw Score
psychometric_reporting.scores	candidate_id	Candidate
dim.candidates	email	Email Address (PII > Direct Identifier)

---

Governance Workflow

Terms go through a review lifecycle before becoming official definitions.

Submitting a term for review

1. Open a Draft term.
2. Click Submit for Review.
3. The assigned reviewers receive a notification.

Approving or rejecting a term

Reviewers see pending terms in Governance → Glossaries → Pending Review.

1. Open the pending term.
2. Review the definition, synonyms, and linked assets.
3. Click Approve or Request Changes (with a comment explaining what needs updating).

Approved terms display a green Approved badge and appear in search results and column auto-suggest.

---

Browsing the Glossary

1. Navigate to Governance → Glossaries.
2. Select a glossary.
3. Browse terms alphabetically or use the search bar within the glossary.
4. Click any term to see its full definition, linked assets, and related terms.

Glossary in search results

Approved glossary terms appear in Catalogue search results alongside tables and dashboards. Searching for "pass rate" returns:

1. The Glossary term definition card.
2. All tables and columns linked to that term.
3. Dashboards and charts that use the related dataset metric.

---

Deprecating Terms

When a business term is retired or replaced:

1. Open the term.
2. Click ··· → Deprecate term.
3. Enter a Deprecation note explaining why and pointing to the replacement term.
4. Click Save.

Deprecated terms remain searchable but display a Deprecated badge, and their linked assets are not removed. This preserves history for audit purposes.

---

Glossary Best Practices

Practice	Why it matters
One canonical term per concept	Prevents glossary fragmentation
Include formula when the term involves a calculation	Eliminates ambiguity in metric definitions
Link to all columns that implement the concept	Enables lineage from business term to data
Require review for all new terms	Prevents unapproved definitions becoming authoritative
Review and update terms after schema changes	Keeps definitions accurate
Mark superseded terms as Deprecated (not deleted)	Preserves audit history
Cross-reference with certified metrics in CalabiIQ	Ensures one-to-one alignment between business terms and technical metrics