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| ABC—activity-based costing |
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A cost-management methodology that focuses on overhead costs and traces, rather than allocates, expense categories to a particular cost. |
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| ABM—activity-based management |
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A management methodology for planning, controlling, and improving labor and overhead costs based on the principle that activities consume costs and therefore focusing on work rather than workers. |
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| activity-based costing(ABC) |
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A cost-management methodology that focuses on overhead costs and traces, rather than allocates, expense categories to a particular cost. |
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| ad hoc |
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Intermittent, spontaneous access to the database. |
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| ad-hoc analysis |
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A type of analysis in which questions are answered by manipulating the dimensions, dimension values, and layout of data. |
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| ADN—Advanced Digital Network |
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Usually refers to a 56Kbps leased line. |
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| ADSL—asymmetric digital subscriber line |
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A 1.5Mbps (T1) service designed to deliver video over existing copper telephone wire. Also provides a 16Kbps return path that can be used for control signals such as Pause or Fast Forward. |
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| aggregated data |
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Precalculated and prestored summary data that is held in tables in a data warehouse. Aggregated data provides direct access to calculated data that improves query performance. Functions used to calculate aggregated data include SUM, MAX, MIN, COUNT, and AVG. See also summary table. |
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| American National Standards Institute (ANSI) |
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The primary organization for fostering the development of technology standards in the United States. |
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| analytical tools |
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Software that employs mathematical algorithm(s) to analyze the data contained in a data warehouse. Data mining, OLAP, ROLAP, and other terms are used to designate tools with different functionality. In practice, however, a given analytical tool may provide more than one type of analysis procedure and may also encompass some middleware functionality. |
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| ANSI—American National Standards Institute |
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The primary organization for fostering the development of technology standards in the United States. |
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| Apache |
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Freely distributed and widely used Web-server software available from the Apache Group. |
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| API—application programming interface |
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The programming conventions that provide an application programmer access through protocol layers to the behavior and state of classes and objects. The API defines how a service is invoked through a software package. |
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| applet |
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A component that typically executes in a Web browser but can execute in a variety of other applications or devices that support the applet programming model. An applet cannot run on its own but requires help from other software. |
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| appliance |
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In Java, a networked device such as a printer, terminas, and client that is managed using an application built using the Java management API (JMAPI).
In computing, a server dedicated to one specific function. |
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| application programming interface (API) |
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The programming conventions that provide an application programmer access through protocol layers to the behavior and state of classes and objects. The API defines how a service is invoked through a software package. |
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| application service provider (ASP) |
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A company offering management and maintenance of hosted software applications over the Web, including the application and necessary hardware resources. |
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| Archie |
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A software tool for finding files stored on FTP sites. |
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| argument |
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A keyword, constant, variable, literal value, expression, or object name that provides input to a command, function, method, or program. Synonymous with parameter. |
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| Arpanet—Advanced Research Projects Agency Network |
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The precursor to the internet. Developed in the late '60s and early '70s by the US Department of Defense. |
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| array |
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In programming, a collection of data items, all of the same type, in which each item's position is uniquely designated by an integer.
In database administration, a group of data cells that are arranged by the dimensions of the data. For example, a spreadsheet is a two-dimensional array in which the cells are arranged in rows and columns. A three-dimensional array can be visualized as a cube with each dimension forming one edge of the cube. See also cell, dimension, variable. |
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| ASCII—American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
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The ANSI seven-bit character code, with an eighth bit for parity checking, used for interchange between data processing systems, data communication systems, and associated equipment. |
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| ASP (application service provider) |
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A company offering management and maintenance of hosted software applications over the Web, including the application and necessary hardware resources. |
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| asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) |
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A 1.5Mbps (T1) service designed to deliver video over existing copper telephone wire. Also provides a 16Kbps return path that can be used for control signals such as Pause or Fast Forward. |
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| atomic data |
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In a data warehouse, the data at its lowest level of detail that provides the base data for all data transformations. |
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| atomic |
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value A data value that cannot be further decomposed. |
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| attribute |
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Any detail that serves to classify, identify, qualify, quantify, or express the state of an entity. For example, the product dimension for a clothing manufacturer might contain a level called item, one of whose attributes is color. Attributes represent logical groupings that enable end users to select data based on like characteristics. |
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| authentication |
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The process by which an entity proves to another entity that it is acting on behalf of a specific identity. |
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| axis |
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A component that serves as the major reference point for plotting data in a graph. |
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