Term
| Chief information officer (CIO) |
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Definition
| The title of the principal manager of the IT department. Other common titles are vice president of information services, director of information services, and, less commonly, director of computer services. |
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Term
| Chief technology officer (CTO) |
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Definition
| The head of the technology group. The CTO sorts through new ideas and products to identify those that are most relevant to the organization. The CTO’s job requires deep knowledge of information technology and the ability to envision how new IT will affect the organization over time. |
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Term
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Definition
| A staff function that pertains to all of an organization’s data assets. Typical data administration tasks are setting data standards, developing data policies, and providing for data security. |
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Term
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Definition
| A file or database that contains data definitions. |
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Term
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Definition
| Definitions, or metadata, for data items shared across the organization. They describe the name, official definition, usage, relationship to other data items, processing restrictions, version, security code, format, and other features of data items that are shared across the organization. |
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Term
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Definition
| The management, development, operation, and maintenance of the database so as to achieve the organization’s objectives. This staff function requires balancing conflicting goals: protecting the database while maximizing its availability for authorized use. In smaller organizations, this function usually is served by a single person. Larger organizations assign several people to an office of database administration. |
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Term
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Definition
| IS applications that span more than one department, such as some functional applications, as well as ERP, EAI, and SCM applications. |
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Term
| Legacy information system |
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Definition
| An older system that has outdated technologies and techniques but is still used, despite its age. |
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Term
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Definition
| The process of hiring another organization to perform a service. Outsourcing is done to save costs, to gain expertise, and to free up management time. |
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Term
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Definition
| A group of senior managers from a company’s major business functions that works with the CIO to set the IS priorities and decide among major IS projects and alternatives. |
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