BAU business as usual – is the continuous process of working towards a business goal, as opposed to an improvement project that will create a step change

BCS BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT – formerly known as the British Computing Society

BI business intelligence is a company function that produces data about business operations

CDO Chief Data Officer – a senior managerial role that is tasked with looking after the company’s data

CPD continuous professional development – an official requirement of many professional bodies for their members to document continuous individual development of skills and competencies

CPU central processing unit – the main processing hardware in typical computers

DPA Data Protection Act – a law in the United Kingdom designed to protect personal data in electronic or paper form

ER entity-relationship – a type of modelling usually associated with relational databases which focus on the connections (relationships) between things or concepts (entities)

ETL extract, transform and load – a sequence of data manipulation activities normally associated with data warehousing

GDPR General Data Protection Regulation – a regulation in European Union law that protects the privacy and data of all residents of the union

GPU graphical processing unit – a processing unit specifically built to deal with graphical data, but increasingly used for advanced data processing

HNC Higher National Certificate – a UK further educational qualification that covers the equivalent of 1 years full time study

HND Higher National Diploma – a UK further educational qualification that covers the equivalent of 2 years full time study

ICO Information Commissioner’s Office – an official independent regulatory body in the United Kingdom that has been tasked by Parliament with ensuring the protection and privacy of personal data

IDE integrated development environment – an application that offers facilities to make software development easier, such as a code editor with syntax checking, and assistance with debugging

IoT Internet of Things – internet connected network of physical devices, interacting, collecting and sharing data, which can be remotely monitored and controlled

IP Internet Protoco – an IP address is a numerical identity assigned to every device connected to a computer network

JSON JavaScript Object Notation – an open-standard file format that uses human-readable text

KPI key performance indicator – measures put in place to assess job performance

MI management information – data extracted and summarised to assist management in making better strategic decisions

MOOC massive open online courses which are provided on the internet to non-collocated students who learn and interact exclusively with electronic tools

NoSQL non SQL or not only SQL – a set of tools and techniques for dealing with information that is not suitable for traditional relational databases

NVQ National Vocational Qualification – a UK qualification that assesses candidates’ knowledge and skills

ODBC Open Database Connectivity – a programming interface for connecting relational database systems with other systems and languages

OLAP online analytical processing – a tool used to perform multidimensional analyses of data

ONS Office for National Statistics – the independent body in the UK that publishes official statistics

PAF postcode address file – a lookup file from Royal Mail that contains all delivery addresses in the United Kingdom

PCI DSS the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard – an industry standard that covers information security for credit cards

PECR The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 – a UK law implementing EU regulations and gives individuals specific privacy rights

PII personally identifiable information – data items that could be used to identify an individual

PRINCE2 Projects IN Controlled Environments – a structured project management method

RDBMS relational database management system – a software system designed to manage storage, access and processing of data so that it can be accessed according to the relational model

SDE software development environment – programming tools with features to assist in writing code

SFIA Skills Framework for the Information Age – a framework for skills and development of IT professionals that is promoted by BCS

SLA service level agreement – an agreement between a service provider and a customer that defines the level of service, such as the time it should take to complete a task

SME subject matter expert – a person that is generally considered or officially nominated to be the expert in a specific area of knowledge

SQL Structured Query Language – a programming language for extracting and processing information from relational databases

SWOT strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – a technique used to identify relevant factors that can help a company or an individual to achieve their objectives

UML Unified Modelling Language – a standard for modelling and describing software systems, components and behaviour

XML Extensible Markup Language – a markup language that defines rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human- and machine-readable