This glossary defines the terms used in WebSphere® Business Monitor.
- A
action service- A way to inform users about a situation by triggering a process or a
notification.
action service handler- An entity that is responsible for the invocation mechanism of one or
more action services.
Active
Instances view- A view that represents runtime values of KPIs and metrics for active
instances.
activity- An element of a process, such as a task, a subprocess, a loop, or a decision.
Activities are represented as nodes in process diagrams.
Adaptive Action Manager- A component that receives situation events emitted by the Observation
Manager. It selects appropriate actions based on predefined bindings between
the situations and actions that are set by the user, and invokes one or more
actions services.
aggregation - The calculation of a KPI or metric using values from more than one process
instance or activity instance. Aggregations can be used to calculate averages,
minimums, maximums, or sums.
alert- A type of notification sent by the Adaptive Action Manager to one or
more people when a business situation occurs. Alerts are received and displayed
in the Alerts view
in WebSphere Business Monitor Dashboards.
Alerts view- A view that contains notifications that are sent when a business situation
takes place at run time.
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- B
basic analysis- A type of analysis that displays a report for the values of one or more
business measures during a specific period of time. These values can be grouped
by a dimension.
business measure- A measure that describes the performance management aspects of a business
that are required for real-time business monitoring. Business measures include
metrics, counters, stopwatches, and KPIs.
business measures model- A model that describes the business performance management aspects of
a business model, including events, business metrics, and Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) that are required for real-time business monitoring.
Business Process Execution Language- An XML-based language for the formal specification of business processes
and business interaction protocols. BPEL extends the Web Services interaction
model and enables it to support business transactions.
business situation- A significant occurrence in a business environment that might require
one or more business actions. For example, surpassing a KPI limit such as
an allowed credit amount might trigger a particular business response such
as sending an alert to the Account Manager.
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- C
-
change-data table (CD)- A replication table at the Capture control server that contains changed
data for a replication source table.
Common Base Event- A standard, XML-based format that defines the structure of an event.
The common base event includes logging, tracing, management, and business
events. In WebSphere Business
Monitor, events coming from the runtime engine are in common base event format
so that they can be understood by the Common Event Infrastructure.
Common Event Infrastructure (CEI)- A core technology of the IBM® Autonomic Computing initiative that
provides basic event management services, including consolidating and persisting
raw events from multiple, heterogeneous sources, and distributing those events
to event consumers.
concrete portlet- A logical representation of a portlet object distinguished by a unique
configuration parameter (PortletSettings). You can have multiple concrete
portlets for each portlet object. In WebSphere Business Monitor,
dashboard views are concrete portlets before being configured.
control analysis- A type of analysis that displays variations in values of the business
measures over a specific period of time. This type of analysis reduces data
variation, and is often used for quality control. Allowable variation is three
times the standard deviation of the data.
consistent-change-data table (CDD)- In SQL replication, a type of replication target table that is used for
storing history, auditing data, or staging data. A CCD table can also be a
replication source.
cooperative portlets - Two or more portlets on the same Web page that interact by sharing information.
An action or event in the source portlet triggers changes in the target portlets.
cooperative views- See cooperative portlets.
counter- A counter is a specialized measure used to keep track of the number of
occurrences of a specific situation or event. For example, you can use a counter
to track the number of times that a task is started within a process, where
that task is contained in a loop.
cube- A particular kind of data container used for multidimensional reporting.
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- D
dashboard- A container (portal page) that may contain one or more views (portlets).
In WebSphere Business Monitor, a dashboard enables
users to monitor business performance through a set of views.
Data Definition Language (DDL)- A language for describing data and its relationships in a database.
database schema- A collection of database objects such as tables, views, indexes, or triggers
that define a database. A database schema provides a logical classification
of database objects.
dimension- A data category used to organize and select data for retrieval, monitoring,
and analysis. Dimensions also represent the highest consolidation level in
a multidimensional database outline. Some examples of dimensions are time, accounts, products,
and markets. A dimension is composed of one or more levels, which are
defined in the Business Measures editor of WebSphere Business
Modeler.
dimension level- An element that belongs to a dimension. For example, the time dimension
can have years, months, and days as its levels.
Dimensions view- A view that manipulates historical data to provide multidimensional analysis.
Data is presented in charts and grids and can be analyzed against different
dimensions.
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- E
-
event - In a real-time monitor such as WebSphere Business Monitor,
both the source of up-to-date state information from which the values of metrics
are derived, and the means of emitting notifications, which in turn trigger
business actions.
event queue- An ordered list of events to be processed or messages to be transmitted.
exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA)- The average of historical values that are given weights (by a Weighing
factor), which exponentially decrease by time.
extract, transform, and load (ETL)- The process of collecting data from one or more sources, cleansing and
transforming it, and then loading it into a database.
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- G
gauge- An instrument with a graduated scale or dial for measuring or indicating
values.
Gauges view- A view that represents runtime values of KPIs, relative to their limits
or targets, in the form of gauges.
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- I
inbound event - An event sent by the runtime system and received by the Monitor Server
in the WebSphere Business Monitor. In WebSphere Business
Modeler, inbound events are predefined.
instance- A particular occurrence or example of something.
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- J
Java™ Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI)- An extension to the Java platform that provides a standard interface
for heterogeneous naming and directory services.
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- K
key performance indicator (KPI)- A detailed specification used to track performance against a business
objective. A KPI is defined within the context of the WebSphere Business
Modeler's Business Measures editor and evaluated by WebSphere Business Monitor.
It is associated with a specific process and may have upper or lower limits,
or upper or lower margins, forming a range, value, or performance target that
the process should achieve. A KPI is made up of one or more business measures.
Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) view- A view that represents runtime values of KPIs, relative to their upper
or lower limits, in the form of grids.
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- M
measure- The dimensions, the capacity, or the amount of something ascertained
by measuring. See also business measure.
metric- A measurement of a process or process element. A metric can be evaluated
alone, or used in the calculation for a key performance indicator to track
performance against a business objective. Metrics are defined within a specific
process using WebSphere Business
Modeler's Business Measures editor, and the value of that metric
is captured and evaluated using WebSphere Business Monitor.
model- A representation of a process, system, or subject area, generally developed
for understanding, analysis, improvement, or replacement of the process. It
can include a representation of information, activities, relationships, and
constraints.
modeled measure- A business measure that was set while composing the business measures
model in the Business Measures editor of the WebSphere Business
Modeler.
multidimensional analysis - A type of analysis that represents historical values of business measures
in charts and grids. Data can be analyzed against different dimensions and
dimension levels and are depicted on the charts and grids.
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- N
notification- A type of informative action. A notification can be an e-mail, a short
message on a mobile or pager, or an alert. Notifications are sent as the actions
services that the Adaptive Action Manager performs. For example, the alerts
that are displayed in the Alerts view
are one type of notifications.
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- O
-
online analytical processing (OLAP)- The process of collecting data from one or many sources; transforming
and analyzing the consolidated data quickly and interactively; and examining
the results across different dimensions of the data by looking for patterns,
trends, and exceptions within complex relationships of that data.
on time situation- A situation that is evaluated based on a period of time. For example,
situation triggers can be evaluated and triggered every 30 minutes.
organization- An entity where people cooperate to accomplish specified objectives.
For example, an organization can be an enterprise, a company, or a factory.
Organizations view- A view that represents an organization structure and employees relationships
in the form a hierarchical tree.
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- P
-
personalization- The process of enabling information to be targeted to specific users
based on the settings they specify while using the Edit mode of a dashboard
view.
perspective- A key business aspect whose performance is important to the business
success. Financial situation, customer satisfaction, learning and growth curves,
and process improvement are examples of business perspectives.
pivot table- A table characterized by having one metric as a column dimension and
all the rest of the metrics represented as row dimensions.
portal- A single, secure point of access to diverse information, applications,
and people that can be customized and personalized. A portal may include one
or more portlets.
portlet- A Web component that provides specific services or information and that
is specifically designed to be aggregated with other portlets in the context
of a composite page, or portal. In WebSphere Business Monitor,
a portlet is a view that retrieves values of business measures at run time
or historically.
portlet application- A collection of related portlets that can share resources with one another.
In WebSphere Business Monitor, the Dashboards
Client is a portal application.
process diagram- A visual representation that illustrates the flow of work for a process.
The objects within a process diagram include tasks, processes, connections,
business items, resources, and decisions.
process instance- A manifestation of a modeled process that is created in a simulated or
real environment.
Process
Diagrams view- A view that displays the diagram of a process. If connected by a wire
to other views, such as the Active
Instances and Alerts views, it shows the diagrams
of process instances.
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- Q
quartile analysis- A type of analysis that displays the value of the business measures boundaries
at the 25th, 50th, or 75th percentiles of a frequency distribution divided
into four parts, each containing a quarter of the population.
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- R
replication- The process of maintaining a defined set of data in more than one location.
It involves copying designated changes for one location (a source) to another
(a target), and synchronizing the data in both locations.
Replication Manager- A component that can create, run, administer, and monitor a set of replication
services.
replication services- The data movement between different databases in WebSphere Business Monitor to
ensure that data are identical in all databases. For example, the copying
of data from a State database to a Runtime database is one of the replication
services.
resume- To carry on the action of a suspended process instance.
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- S
Schema Generator- A component that generates the schemas of the annotated business measures
model such as the database DDL scripts, the DB2® Cube Views™ metadata, and the database
replication scripts.
score- A progress bar that represents the performance percentage of a KPI that
belongs to a business perspective, relative to the KPI target.
scorecard- A display method that assesses business performance of different business
perspectives. Each business perspective has its own scorecard that includes
its KPIs and their values and score relative to their targets.
Scorecards view- A view that represents runtime values of KPIs relative to their targets
grouped by business perspectives.
situation- A significant occurrence that is detected when a set of conditions that
are defined in the WebSphere Business
Modeler are
met. For example, exceeding the limits of a KPI might be a situation.
situation event- A Common Base Event that is emitted when a defined situation occurs.
In WebSphere Business Monitor, the Adaptive Action
Manager checks the situation event and triggers an action service accordingly.
A situation event in WebSphere Business
Modeler is
a user-defined event associated with a business measure.
staging table- A table that is used to save data that is moved from source tables to
target tables during the data replication. It is the intermediate source used
for updating data to one or more target tables during the ETL.
star schema- A type of relational database schema that is composed of a set of tables
comprised of a single, central fact table surrounded by dimension tables.
stopwatch- A stopwatch is a specialized measure used to keep track of elapsed time.
For example, you can use a stopwatch to track the time since an order was
submitted.
subject area- An indicator that a process is subject to multidimensional analysis on
historical data.
suspend- To pause a process instance.
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- T
terminate- To end the action of a process instance.
trend analysis- A type of analysis that displays the analysis of the changes in a given
item of information over a period of time using Exponentially Weighted Moving
Average (EWMA).
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- V
view- A portlet that represents information about business performance. A view
provides values of business measures either at run time or historically.
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- W
wire - A technique for connecting two or more cooperative portlets so that changes
in the source portlet automatically update the target portlets without any
user interaction.
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More terms and definitions of IBM products are found in the IBM Terminology Web
site.