Business Intelligence: Measurement (Definitions)

[process measurement] "The set of definitions, methods, and activities used to take measurements of a process and its resulting products for the purpose of characterizing and understanding the process." (Sandy Shrum et al, "CMMI: Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement, Second Edition", 2006)

"Measurement is understood as a continuous process during which process metrics are defined and measurement data are collected, analyzed, and evaluated. The objective is to understand, control, and optimize processes, for instance, to improve project control, reduce development effort and cost, or to improve on work products." (Lars Dittmann et al, "Automotive SPICE in Practice", 2008)

[process measurement] "An evaluation of the performance of a system process.  A measurement from the system process is compared to determine whether it is below the 'Minimum value' or above the 'Maximum value' of the success criterion for that system process. If so, it is the source of a system event type that is the trigger of another system process to correct the situation." (David C Hay, "Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map", 2010)

"Systematically determining or estimating dimension, quantity, and capacity in order to assign value." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement." 3rd Ed, 2012)

"The process of measurement is the act of ascertaining the size, amount, or degree of something. Measurements are the results of the process of measuring." (Laura Sebastian-Coleman, "Measuring Data Quality for Ongoing Improvement ", 2012)

"The process of determining the monetary amounts at which the elements of the financial statements are to be recognised and carried in the balance sheet [statement of financial position] and income statement [statement of comprehensive income]." (Project Management Institute, "The Standard for Program Management  3rd Ed..", 2013)

"(1) An instance of a measurement (a 'data point'). (2) The activity or process of making a measurement; for example, mapping empirical values to numbers or symbols of a measurement scale." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"The process of assigning a number or category to an entity to describe an attribute of that entity." (ISO 14598)

Business Intelligence: Measures (Definitions)

"A quantitative, numerical column in a fact table. Measures typically represent the values that are analyzed. See also dimension." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"A metric is a measurable or quantitative value." (Microsoft Corporation, "Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Data Warehouse Training Kit", 2000)

"A measure is a dimensional modeling term that refers to values, usually numeric, that measure some aspect of the business. Measures reside in fact tables. The dimensional terms measure and attribute, taken together, are equivalent to the relational modeling use of the term attribute." (Claudia Imhoff et al, "Mastering Data Warehouse Design", 2003)

"(1) A mapping from empirical properties to quantities in a formal mathematical model called a measurement scale. (2) To obtain a measurement." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"In Dimensional modeling, a specific data item that describes a fact or aggregation of facts. Measures are implemented as metric facts." (Sharon Allen & Evan Terry, "Beginning Relational Data Modeling" 2nd Ed., 2005)

"A summarizable numerical value used to monitor business activity; it is also known as a fact. " (Reed Jacobsen & Stacia Misner, "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step", 2006)

"A column of quantifiable data mapped to a dimension within a cube. Measures are often used to provide access to aggregations of data (such as annual sales of a product or a store), while also giving the ability to drill down into the details (such as quarterly or monthly sales)." (Robert D. Schneider and Darril Gibson, "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies", 2008)

[business measure:] "Business performance metric captured by an operational system and represented as a physical or computed fact in a dimensional model." (Ralph Kimball, "The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit", 2008)

"A set of usually numeric values from a fact table that is aggregated in a cube across all dimensions." (Jim Joseph et al, Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Unleashed, 2009)

[business measures:] "The complete set of facts, base and derived, that are defined and made available for reporting and analysis." (Laura Reeves, "A Manager's Guide to Data Warehousing", 2009)

"A quantitative performance indicator or success factor that can be traced on an ongoing basis to determine successful operation and progress toward objectives and goals." (David Lyle & John G. Schmidt, "Lean Integration", 2010)

"1.Loosely used, a metric. 2.In data modeling, a quantified characteristic; the unit used to quantify the dimensions, capacity, or amount of something." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"Value assigned (noun) or the process of assigning a value (verb) to an object through calculation, appraisal, estimation, or some other method." (Leslie G Eldenburg & Susan K. Wolcott, "Cost Management" 2nd Ed., 2011)

"In a cube, a set of values that are usually numeric and are based on a column in the fact table of the cube. Measures are the central values that are aggregated and analyzed." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"The act of identifying what to measure as well as actually collecting the measures that would help an organization understand if the process is operating within acceptable limits." (Project Management Institute, "Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®)" 3rd Ed., 2013)

"Metrics such as count, maximum, minimum, sum, or average that are used in a fact table. Measures can be calculated with an SQL expression or mapped directly to a numeric value in a column." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

"The number or category assigned to an attribute of an entity by making a measurement. (ISO 14598)

Business Intelligence: Metric (Definitions)

"(1) The degree to which a product, process, or project possesses some attribute of interest. (2) A measured quantity (such as size, effort, duration, or quality). (3) The distance between two points in a vector space." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"A summarizable numerical value used to monitor business activity; it is also known as a fact." (Reed Jacobsen & Stacia Misner, "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step", 2006)

"A metric is a measurement. When a plan is put into place, a way to measure the outcome is needed. When a market share forecast is created and the outcomes are measured at a future date, the planned metric is compared with the actual metric to determine the degree to which the metric was met. From this data, strategies can be revised and tactical options can be reconsidered." (Steven Haines, "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", 2008)

"A numerical value describing a procedure, process, product attribute, or goal. A distinction is made between basic metrics (that can be measured directly) and derived metrics which result from mathematical operations using basic metrics." (Lars Dittmann et al, "Automotive SPICE in Practice", 2008)

"a measurement of some parameter, usually used in the assessment of a technology, approach, or design." (Bruce P Douglass, "Real-Time Agility: The Harmony/ESW Method for Real-Time and Embedded Systems Development", 2009)

"A metric is a standard unit of measure, such as meter or mile for length, or gram or ton for weight, or, more generally, part of a system of parameters, or systems of measurement, or a set of ways of quantitatively and periodically measuring, assessing, controlling, or selecting a person, process, event, or institution, along with the procedures to carry out measurements and the procedures for the interpretation of the assessment in the light of previous or comparable assessments." (Mark S Merkow & Lakshmikanth Raghavan, "Secure and Resilient Software Development", 2010)

"Groupings of data, or numbers, that reflect specific measures or subjects." (Annetta Cortez & Bob Yehling, "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Risk Management", 2010)

"a calculated value based on measurements used to monitor and control a process or business activity. Most metrics are ratios comparing one measurement to another." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A specific, measurable standard against which actual performance is compared." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011) 

"Generally, a unit of measure selected used to monitor and control a process." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"In a data warehouse, numeric facts that measure a business characteristic of interest to the end user." (Carlos Coronel et al, "Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management" 9th Ed., 2011)

"Measurement of a particular characteristic of a task (for example, duration, effort, quality, cost, value delivered, or customer satisfaction)." (Charles Cooper & Ann Rockley, "Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy" 2nd Ed., 2012)

"1. A value from measuring a certain program or component attribute. Finding metrics is a task for static analysis. 2. A measurement scale and the method used for measurement." (Tilo Linz et al, "Software Testing Foundations" 4th Ed., 2014)

"A method of measuring something. It provides quantifiable data used to gauge the effectiveness of a process; metrics are commonly used to measure the effectiveness of a help desk." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"A value that you use to study some aspect of a project. A metric can be an attribute (such as the number of bugs) or a calculated value (such as the number of bugs per line of code)." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Software Engineering", 2015)

"A measurement used to support the monitoring of a key performance indicator (KPI). A metric can have targets and can be used as a service level." (by Brian Johnson & Leon-Paul de Rouw, "Collaborative Business Design", 2017)

"Facts and figures representing the effectiveness of business processes that organizations track and monitor to assess the state of the company." (Jonathan Ferrar et al, "The Power of People: Learn How Successful Organizations Use Workforce Analytics To Improve Business Performance", 2017)

"A metric is the measurement of a particular characteristic of a company’s performance or efficiency. Metrics are the variables whose measured values are tied to the performance of the organization. They are also known as the performance metrics because they are performance indicators." (Amar Sahay, "Business Analytics" Vol. I, 2018)

"A measurable quantity that indicates progress toward some goal." (O Sami Saydjari, "Engineering Trustworthy Systems: Get Cybersecurity Design Right the First Time", 2018)

"Any number (often one calculated using two or more input numbers) used to evaluate some part of an organization's performance." (Marci S. Thomas & Kim Strom-Gottfried, "Best of Boards" 2nd Ed., 2018)

"Metrics are agreed-upon measures used to evaluate how well the organization is progressing toward the Portfolio, Large Solution, Program, and Team’s business and technical objectives." (Dean Leffingwell, "SAFe 4.5 Reference Guide: Scaled Agile Framework for Lean Enterprises" 2nd Ed., 2018)

"In a machine learning context, a metric is a measure of how good or bad a particular model is at its task. In a software context, a metric is a measure defined for an application, program, or function." (Alex Thomas, "Natural Language Processing with Spark NLP", 2020)

"A business calculation defined by an expression built with functions, facts, attributes, or other metrics." (Microstrategy)

"A measurement scale and the method used for measurement" (ISO 14598)

"Quantifiable measures used to track, monitor, and gauge the results and success of various business processes. Metrics are meant to communicate a company’s progression toward certain long and short term objectives. This often requires the input of key stakeholders in the business as to which metrics matter to them." (Insight Software)

"Tools designed to facilitate decision making and improve performance and accountability through collection, analysis, and reporting of relevant performance-related data." (NIST SP 800-55)

Business Intelligence: Reporting (Definitions)

"An automated business process or related functionality that provides a detailed, formal account of relevant or requested information." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

[enterprise reporting:] "1.The process of producing reports using unified views of enterprise data. 2.A category of software tools used to produce reports; a term for what were simply known as reporting tools." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

[ad hoc reporting:] "A reporting system that enables end users to run queries and create custom reports without having to know the technicalities of the underlying database schema and query syntax." (Microsoft, "SQL Server 2012 Glossary", 2012)

"A process by which insight is presented in a visually appealing and informative manner." (Evan Stubbs, "Delivering Business Analytics: Practical Guidelines for Best Practice", 2013)

"The practice of reporting what has happened, analyzing contributing data to determine why it happened, and monitoring new data to determine what is happening now. Also known as descriptive analytics and business intelligence." (Brenda L Dietrich et al, "Analytics Across the Enterprise", 2014)

"The process of collecting data from various sources and presenting it to business people in an understandable way." (Daniel Linstedt & W H Inmon, "Data Architecture: A Primer for the Data Scientist", 2014)

"A common interaction with an organizing system." (Robert J Glushko, "The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition" 4th Ed., 2016)

"The function or activity for generating documents that contain information organized in a narrative, graphic, or tabular form, often in a repeatable and regular fashion." (Jonathan Ferrar et al., 2017)

"Business intelligence reporting, or BI reporting, is the process of gathering data by utilizing different software and tools to extract relevant insights. Ultimately, it provides suggestions and observations about business trends, empowering decision-makers to act." (Data Pine) [source] 

"When we talk about reporting in business intelligence (BI), we are talking about two things. One is reporting strictly defined. The other is 'reporting' taken in a more general meaning. In the first case, reporting is the art of collecting data from various data sources and presenting it to end-users in a way that is understandable and ready to be analyzed. In the second sense, reporting means presenting data and information, so it also includes analysis–in other words, allowing end-users to both see and understand the data, as well as act on it." (Logi Analytics) [source] 

Business Intelligence: Dashboards (Definitions)

"A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance." (Stephen Few, "Dashboard Confusion", Intelligent Enterprise, 2004)

Dashboard reports: "Highly summarized, often graphical, representations of the state of the business that are often used by executives and strategic decision makers." (Reed Jacobsen & Stacia Misner, "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step", 2006)

Dashboard: "A means of providing information in a straightforward way. Like the part in a car it is named after, a business dashboard allows executives to see key metrics about anything from monthly sales to manufacturing downtime." (Tony Fisher, "The Data Asset", 2009)

Dashboard (also called performance dashboard): "The presentation of key business measurements on a single interface designed for quick interpretation, often using graphics. The most effective dashboards are supported by a full data mart that enables drilling down into more detailed data to better understand the indicators." (Laura Reeves, "A Manager's Guide to Data Warehousing", 2009)

Dashboard: "A visual display mechanism to enable business users at every level to receive the information they need to make better decisions that improve business performance." (Paulraj Ponniah, "Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals", 2010)

Dashboard: "A BI tool that provides a comprehensive, at-a-glance view of corporate performance with graphical presentations, resembling a dashboard of a car. These graphical presentations show performance measures, trends, and exceptions, and integrate information from multiple business areas." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

Dashboard: "A technique to represent vast amounts of decision-support information at an amalgamated level using tabular and graphic representation, such as graphs and traffic lights." (Paul C Dinsmore et al, "Enterprise Project Governance", 2012)

Dashboards: "Business intelligence tools that display performance indicators, present data and information at both summary and detailed levels, and assist decision-makers employing them to act on the information they present." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement" 3rd Ed., 2012)

Dashboard: "A view that displays ranges of data in a graphical format. Key performance indicators (KPIs) or any element can be displayed in a dashboard. Each element is represented by a gauge that displays the data ranges that are defined. Links to comments, trend data, and element properties can also be provided." (Jim Davis & Aiman Zeid, "Business Transformation", 2014)

"[...] dashboards indicate the status of a performance metric at a given point in time. [...] dashboards are used to represent actual granular data, they contain data that is more recent than that of scorecards." (Saumya Chaki, "Enterprise Information Management in Practice", 2015)

Data dashboard: "A management-level online report capturing data conditions and trends."(Gregory Lampshire, "The Data and Analytics Playbook", 2016)

"A dashboard is a visual display of data used to monitor conditions and/or facilitate understanding."

(Steve Wexler et al, "The Big Book of Dashboards: Visualizing Your Data Using Real-World Business Scenarios", 2017)

"A dashboard is a reporting tool that consolidates, aggregates and arranges measurements, metrics (measurements compared to a goal) and sometimes scorecards on a single screen so information can be monitored at a glance. Dashboards differ from scorecards in being tailored to monitor a specific role or generate metrics reflecting a particular point of view; typically they do not conform to a specific management methodology." (Information Management) [also (Intrafocus)] 

"Dashboards are a reporting mechanism that aggregate and display metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), enabling them to be examined at a glance by all manner of users before further exploration via additional business analytics (BA) tools." (Gartner)

Business Intelligence: Trend Analysis (Definitions)

"The process of looking at homogeneous data over a duration of time to find recurring and predictable behavior." (Sharon Allen & Evan Terry, "Beginning Relational Data Modeling" 2nd Ed., 2005)

"the process of looking at homogeneous data over a spectrum of time." (William H Inmon, "Building the Data Warehouse", 2005)

"An analytical technique that uses mathematical models to forecast future outcomes based on historical results. It is a method of determining the variance from a baseline of a budget, cost, schedule, or scope parameter by using prior progress reporting periods' data and projecting how much that parameter's variance from baseline might be at some future point in the project if no changes are made in executing the project." (Cynthia Stackpole, "PMP® Certification All-in-One For Dummies®", 2011)

[trending] "A process by which underlying trends are identified within time-related data. These trends may be manually, algorithmically, or statistically identified and may be extrapolated into the future to aid planning." (Evan Stubbs, "Delivering Business Analytics: Practical Guidelines for Best Practice", 2013)

"A form of statistical analysis used to analyze activities over a period of time." (Sally-Anne Pitt, "Internal Audit Quality", 2014)

"Using tools and statistics to identify consistent movement in one direction or another. The analysis might show a consistent upward trend or a consistent downward trend, but either way it indicates a change worth investigating." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"A data analysis technique that examines project performance over time to determine if performance is improving or deteriorating." (Cate McCoy & James L Haner, "CAPM Certified Associate in Project Management Practice Exams", 2018)

"An analytical technique that uses mathematical models to forecast future outcomes based on historical results." (Project Management Institute, "The Standard for Organizational Project Management (OPM)", 2018)

 "analysis of data to identify time-related patters" (ITIL)