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Full Glossary

Foundations

Business Modeling
Modeling how an organization operates — its processes, roles, and goals — to understand context and derive system requirements.
Why Model the Business
Understanding the business ensures systems support real processes and value, reducing the risk of building the wrong thing.
Business vs. System Modeling
Business modeling describes the organization and its processes; system modeling describes the software that supports them.
UML for Business
UML notation, sometimes with business stereotypes, used to model processes, roles, and business objects.

Business Use Cases

Business Use Case
A description of a process that delivers value to a business actor, viewing the organization as a system of value delivery.
Business Actor
Someone or something outside the organization that interacts with it to gain value, such as a customer or supplier.
Business Worker
A role inside the organization that participates in carrying out business processes.
Business Use Case Model
A model of the organization's value-delivering processes and the actors they serve.

Process Modeling

Activity Diagram
A UML diagram modeling workflow as actions, decisions, forks, and joins — ideal for business processes.
Swimlanes
Partitions in an activity diagram that show which role or unit performs each action.
Decision and Merge
Activity-diagram nodes representing branching logic and rejoining of flows in a process.
Fork and Join
Nodes representing parallel activities that split and later synchronize.
Value Stream Thinking
Viewing business processes as flows of value to customers, aligned with Lean concepts.

Business Objects

Business Object Model
A model of the key entities and concepts the business works with and their relationships.
Business Entity
A significant thing the business manages (e.g., order, account) represented as a class in the model.
Class Diagram for Business
A UML class diagram capturing business entities, attributes, and relationships.
Domain Concepts
The core ideas and vocabulary of the business area that ground both business and system models.

Connecting to Systems

From Business to System Requirements
Deriving system use cases and requirements from the business processes the system must support.
Traceability
Linking business processes to system requirements so systems clearly support business value.
Automation Boundary
Deciding which parts of a business process the system will automate versus keep manual.

Applying It

Improving Processes
Using business models to spot inefficiencies and redesign processes for better value flow.
Stakeholder Communication
Using accessible business models to build shared understanding among business and technical stakeholders.
Just Enough Modeling
Modeling enough of the business to guide decisions and requirements without over-documenting.
Aligning IT with Business
Ensuring systems are designed to support real organizational goals and processes.
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