A B C D

Business Operations
Activities and procedures carried out by the user community in performing the business role of a
Organization. This module is concerned with those business operations that use an IT-based business system. [Help Desk]
Business unit
A segment of the business entity by which both revenues are received and expenditure are caused or controlled, such revenues and expenditure being used to evaluate segmental performance. [Cost Management]
CAB Change Advisory Board CAB/EC
Change Advisory Board / Executive Committee
Categorization See Incident Categorization [Help Desk]; [Problem Management]
Category
Classification of a group of Configuration Items, Change documents or Problems. [Service Support]
CC88
CCTA Rules for tendering and general conditions of contract covering services and supply for IT systems. [Help Desk]
Change
The addition, modification or removal of approved, supported or baselined hardware, network, software, application, environment, system, desktop build or associated documentation.
[Service Support]
Change Advisory Board
A group of people who can give expert advice to Change Management on the implementation of
Changes. This board is likely to be made up of representatives from all areas within IT and
representatives from business units.
[Service Support]
Change Advisory Board A representative group of people who are responsible for assessing, from both a business and a technical viewpoint, all requests for change (RFCs). They advise
on the priorities of RFCs and propose allocations of resources to implement those changes. [Problem Management]
Change authority
A group that is given the authority to approve Change, e.g. by a project board. Sometimes referred to as the Configuration Board. [Service Support]
Change control
The procedure to ensure that all Changes are controlled, including the submission, analysis, decision making, approval, implementation and post implementation of the Change.
[Service Support]
Change document
Request for Change, Change control form, Change order, Change record. [Service Support]
Change history
Auditable information that records, for example, what was done, when it was done, by whom and why. [Service Support]
Change log
A log of Requests for Change raised during a project, showing information on each Change, its evaluation, what decisions have been made and its current status, e.g. raised, reviewed, approved, implemented, or closed. [Service Support]
Change Management
Process of controlling Changes to the infrastructure or any aspect of service, in a controlled manner, enabling approved Changes with minimum disruption. [Service
Support]
Change Management
a process of identifying and defining the configuration items in a system, recording and reporting the status of configuration items and requests for change, and verifying the completeness and correctness of configuration items. [Problem Management]
Change Record
A record containing details of which CIs are affected by an authorized change (planned or implemented) and how. [Configuration Management]; [Software Control and Distribution]; [Service Support]
Channel
Channel is the physical connection from CPU to an I/O device, usually a controller, or indeed another CPU. [Capacity Management]
Charging
The process of establishing charges in respect of business units, and raising the relevant invoices for recovery from customers. [Cost Management]
CI
Configuration Item [Configuration Management]; [Help Desk]
Classification
See Incident Classification [Help Desk]
Classification Process of formally grouping
Configuration Items by type, e.g. software, hardware, documentation, environment, application.
Process of formally identifying Changes by type e.g. project scope Change request, validation Change request, infrastructure Change request. Process of formally identifying Incidents, roblems and Known Errors by origin, symptoms and cause. [Service Support]
Closure
When the Customer is satisfied that the incident has been resolved. [Service Support]
CMDB Configuration Management Database
CMH Contractually Maintained Hardware Computer Aided
System Engineering A software tool for programmers. It provides help in the planning, analysis, design and documentation of computer software. [Service Support]
Configuration baseline
Configuration of a product or system established at especific point in time, which captures both the structure and details of that product or system, and enables that product or system to rebuilt at later date. A snapshot or a position which is recorded. Although the position may be updated later, the baseline remains unchanged and available as a reference of the original
state and as a comparison against the current position (PRINCE2). [Service Support]
Configuration control
Activities comprising the control of changes to configuration items after formally establishing its
configuration documents. It includes the evaluation, coordination, approval or rejection of Changes. The implementation of Changes includes changes, deviations and waivers that impact on the configuration. [Service Support]
Configuration documentation
Documents that define requirements, system design, build, production, and verification for a Configuration Item. [Service Support]
Configuration identification
Activities that determine the product structure, the selection of Configuration Items, and the documentation of the Configuration Item’s physical and functional characteristics, including interfaces and subsequent
Changes. It includes the allocation of identification characters or numbers to the Configuration Items and their documents. It also includes the unique numbering of configuration control forms associated with Changes and Problems. [Service Support]
Configuration Item
A component of an IT infrastructure - or an item, such as a request for change, associated with an IT infrastructure- which is (or is to be) under the control of configuration management. CIs may vary widely in complexity, size and type - from an entire system (including all hardware, software and documentation) to a single module or a minor hardware component. (Abk.:
CI) [Configuration Management]; [Software Control and Distribution]; [Service Support]; [Problem
Management]
Configuration Item
A component of an IT Infrastructure, normally the smallest unit that can be changed independently of other components. CIs may vary widely in complexity, size and type, from an entire system (including all hardware, software and documentation) to a single program module or a minor hardware component. [Help Desk]; [Change Management]
Configuration Item (CI) A component of an IT infrastructure - or an item, such as a request for change, associated with an IT infrastructure- which is (or is to be) under the control of configuration and asset management. CIs may vary widely in complexity, size and type - from an entire system (including all hardware, software and documentation) to a single module or a minor hardware component. (Abk.: CI) [Security Management]
Configuration Management The process of identifying and defining the configuration
items in a system, recording and reporting the status of configuration items and requests for change, and verifying the completeness and correctness of configuration items. [Help Desk]; [Change Management]; [Problem Management]; [Service Support]
Configuration Management Database A database which contains details about the attributes
and the history of each CI and details of the important relationships between CIs. [Software Control and Distribution]
Configuration Management Database A database that contains all relevant details of each CI
and details of the important relationships between CIs. [Service Support]
Configuration Management plan
Document setting out the organization and procedures for the Configuration Management of a specific product, project, system, support group or service. [Service Support]
Configuration Management tool
A software product providing automatic support for Change, Configuration or version control.
[Service Support]
Configuration structure
A hierarchy of all the CIs that comprise a configuration. [Service Support]
Cost
The amount of expenditure (actual or notional) incurred on, or attributable to, a specific activity or business unit. [Cost Management]
Cost Management
The term used in this module to describe all the procedures, tasks and deliverables that are needed to fulfil an organization’s costing and charging requirements. [Cost Management]
Cost Unit
In the context of CSBC the cost unit is a functional cost unit which establishes standard cost per workload element of activity, based on calculated activity ratios converted to cost ratios.
[Cost Management]
Costing
The process of identifying the costs of the business and of breaking them down and relating them to the various activities of the organization. [Cost Management]
Customer Recipient of a service;
usually the Customer management has responsibility for the cost of the service, either directly through charging or indirectly in terms of demonstrable business need. [Service Support]; [Security Management]
Customer
The recipient of the IT service; usually the customer will have responsibility for the cost of the IT service, either directly through charging or indirectly in terms of demonstrable business needs.
[Service Level Management]
Data transfer
time Data transfer time is the length of time taken for a block or sector of data to be read from or written to an I/O device, such as a disk or tape. [Capacity Management]
DBMS Database Management System
Definitive Software Library
The library in which the definitive authorized versions of all software CIs are stored and protected. It is a physical library or storage repository where master copies of
software versions are placed. This one logical storage area may in reality consists of one ore more physical software libraries or filestores. They should be separate from development and test filestore areas. The DSL may also include a physical store to hold master copies
of bought-in software, e.g. a fireproof safe. Only authorized software should be accepted into the DSL, strictly controlled by Change and Release Management. The DSL exists not directly because of the needs of the Configuration Management process, but as a common
base for the Release Management and Configuration Management process.
[Service Support]
Definitive Software Library
A library where all quality-controlled versions of all software configuration items (CIs) are held in their definitive form. (Abk.: DSL) [Configuration Management]
Delta release
A release that replaces all component CIs of a release unit, but rather includes only those CIs that have changed since the last version of the software [Software Control and Distribution]
Delta Release
A Delta, or partial, Release is one that includes only those CIs within the Release unit that have actually changed or are new since the last full or Delta Release. For example, if the Release unit is the program, a Delta Release contains only those modules that have changed, or are new, since the last full release of the program or the last Delta Release of certain modules. See also "Full Release". [Service Support]
Depreciation
Depreciation is the loss in value of an asset due to its use and / or the passage of time. The annual depreciation charge accounts represents the amount of capital assets used up in the accounting period. It is charged in the cost accounts to ensure that the cost of capital equipment is reflected in the unit costs of the services provided using the equipment. There are
various methods of calculating depreciation for the period, but the Treasury usually recommend the use of current cost asset valuation as the basis for the depreciation charge.
[Cost Management]
Differential charging
Charging business customers different rates for the same work, typically to dampen demand or to generate revenue for spare capacity. This can also be used to encourage off-peak or night time running. [Cost Management]
Direct Cost
A cost which is incurred for, and can be traced in full to a product, service, cost center or department. This is an allocated cost. Direct costs are direct materials, direct wages and direct expenses. [Cost Management]
Discounted cash flow
An evaluation of the future net cash flows generated by an capital project, by discounting them to their presentday value.
The two methods most commonly used are:
a) yield method, for which the calculation determines the internal rate of return (IRR) in the form of a percentage,
b) net present value (NPV) method, in which the discount rate is chosen and the answer is a sum of money. [Cost Management]
Discounting
Discounting is the offering to business customers of reduced rates for the use of off-peak resources (see also Purchasing). [Cost Management]
Disk cache controller
Disk cache controllers have memory which is used to store blocks of data which have been read from the disk devices connected to them. If a subsequent I/O requires a record which is still resident in the cache memory, it will be picked up from there, thus saving another physical I/O.
[Capacity Management]
Domain See IT infrastructure domain [Help Desk]; [Problem Management]
DSL Definitive Software Library; see there [Configuration Management]
Duplex
Duplex equipment provides two, usually identical, IT components each of which is capable of performing the full task if the other fail. [Availability Management]
Duplex (full or half)
Full duplex line / channel allows simultaneous transmission in both directions. Half duplex line /
channel is capable of transmitting in both directions, but only in one direction at a time.
[Capacity Management]