Business Glossary
User Guide — Defining and Managing Your Business Terms
| Last updated: September 2026
Contents
- Overview
- Key Concept: A Shared Vocabulary for Your Data
- Finding Your Way Around
- Browsing and Searching Terms
- What a Term Is Made Of
- Adding a New Term
- Editing a Term
- Deleting a Term
- Quick Reference
1. Overview
The Business Glossary is where your organisation defines its business terms in one central place. A business term is a plain-language name for something the business cares about — for example, "Active Customer" or "Net Revenue" — together with an agreed definition and the details that give it context.
The point of the glossary is to make sure everyone means the same thing when they use the same word. Instead of each team keeping its own definitions in spreadsheets and emails, the glossary holds a single, shared version that the whole organisation can rely on.
What you can do here
- Browse every business term defined in your environment.
- Search for a term by name.
- Read a term's full detail — its definition, synonyms, category, classification, related terms, and more.
- Add a new term and fill in its definition and context.
- Edit a term, with your changes saved automatically as you go.
- Delete a term you no longer need.
WHERE TO FIND IT — The Business Glossary lives under Governance → Business Glossary. It opens with the list of terms on the left and the first term's detail shown on the right.
2. Key Concept: A Shared Vocabulary for Your Data
Each entry in the glossary is a business term, and every term carries the same set of information so that definitions stay consistent and comparable across the organisation.
Two ideas are worth understanding before you start:
- Categories and Classifications group and label your terms. A category is the broad area a term belongs to; a classification describes its sensitivity or handling. You choose these from ready-made lists when you create a term, so terms stay organised in a consistent way. (These lists are maintained elsewhere in Governance.)
- Relationships connect a term to the rest of your governance environment. A term can be linked to related terms (other glossary entries it's connected to) and to a related data dictionary (the actual data attributes the term describes). These links are what let the Data Asset search show how everything fits together.
THE GLOSSARY IS THE BUSINESS VIEW — The glossary holds the business meaning of things. The technical side — the columns, data types, and quality scores — lives in the Data Dictionary. Linking a term to its dictionary attributes is what joins the business meaning to the real data.
3. Finding Your Way Around
Go to Governance → Business Glossary. The screen has two parts:
- On the left — a search box at the top and, below it, the list of all terms by name. This is how you find and switch between terms.
- On the right — the term detail form, showing everything about the term currently selected in the list. When you open the page, the first term is selected automatically.
At the top right are two buttons — Add New Term and Delete Term — covered later in this guide.
4. Browsing and Searching Terms
The list on the left shows every term in the glossary. Click any term to load its details in the form on the right.
To search for a term
- Type part of the term's name in the search box at the top left.
- Press Enter or click the magnifier icon.
- The list narrows to just the terms whose name contains what you typed.
To go back to the full list, click the X next to the search box — this clears the search and shows every term again.
SEARCH IS BY NAME — The glossary search matches on the term name. If you want to search across definitions and other content — or across dictionary attributes, catalog tables, and transformations at the same time — use the Data Asset search instead.
5. What a Term Is Made Of
When you select a term (or create a new one), you see the same set of fields. Here's what each one means.
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Business Term | The name of the term itself. Required. |
| Synonyms | Other names the term is known by. Required. |
| Definition | The full, plain-language meaning of the term. Required. |
| Category | The broad area the term belongs to, chosen from a list. Required. |
| Classification | How the term is classified (for example, its sensitivity), chosen from a list. Required. |
| Related Terms | Other glossary terms connected to this one. You can pick several; each appears as a tag. |
| Related Data Dictionary | The data attributes this term describes, chosen from the Data Dictionary. You can pick several; each appears as a tag. Required. |
| Source | Where the term or its definition comes from. Required. |
| Data Domain | The data domain the term belongs to. Filled in automatically and cannot be edited. |
| Data Steward | The person responsible for the term. Filled in automatically with your details and cannot be edited. |
TWO FIELDS FILL THEMSELVES IN — Data Domain and Data Steward are set for you: the domain comes from the domain you're currently working in, and the steward is recorded as the person who creates the term. You don't type these, and they're shown as read-only.
6. Adding a New Term
Steps
- Click Add New Term at the top right. (This button is available only if you have permission to create terms.)
- The Create New Business Term form opens.
- Fill in the fields — at minimum the required ones: Business Term, Synonyms, Definition, Category, Classification, Related Data Dictionary, and Source. Data Domain and Data Steward are filled in for you.
- Use the Category and Classification drop-downs to choose from the available lists.
- For Related Terms and Related Data Dictionary, pick one or more entries from the drop-down — each choice appears as a removable tag.
- Click Save. You'll see a confirmation that the new term was saved, and the form clears so you can add another.
To leave without saving, click Cancel — this returns you to the glossary list.
WHAT "REQUIRED" MEANS — The required fields must be filled in before a term can be saved. If something's missing, the form points out which field still needs your attention.
7. Editing a Term
To edit a term, select it in the list on the left and change its details in the form on the right.
The important thing to know: when you edit an existing term, your changes are saved automatically. There's no Save button in edit mode — each change is stored a moment after you make it. Simply update a field and move on; the glossary keeps up.
The Data Domain and Data Steward fields stay read-only while editing, just as they are when creating a term.
AUTO-SAVE WHILE EDITING — Because edits save on their own, there's no separate "save" step and no draft to lose. If you didn't mean to change something, edit it back to what it was — that correction saves the same way.
8. Deleting a Term
To remove a term, use the Delete Term button at the top right. This button is available only if you have permission to delete terms.
DELETING IS PERMANENT — Removing a term takes it out of the glossary for everyone. Before deleting, it's worth checking whether other terms or data assets rely on it. If a term is simply out of date, editing its definition is often better than deleting it.
9. Quick Reference
A fast lookup for the most common actions.
| I want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Open the glossary | Governance → Business Glossary |
| See a term's details | Click the term in the list on the left |
| Find a term by name | Type in the search box → press Enter (or click the magnifier) |
| Show all terms again | Click the X next to the search box |
| Add a new term | Click Add New Term → fill in the fields → Save |
| Link a term to its data | Set Related Data Dictionary when adding or editing the term |
| Connect two terms | Add each to the other's Related Terms |
| Change a term | Select it → edit the fields (changes save automatically) |
| Remove a term | Select it → click Delete Term |
| Search across everything, not just names | Use the Data Asset search |
Source: OnCoor Governance product documentation, written for end users. For the latest screens and options, always refer to the in-app interface.