IT Management

Career paths and IT certifications

• Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) certification

  Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) certification is the name of a suite of entry-level certifications offered by Microsoft that signify fundamental technology knowledge in those who earn it.

• site reliability engineer

  Site reliability engineer is a job title for a specialist who works with software developers to ensure that an organization's computing systems are scalable, stable and predictable.

• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

  Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) is an advanced certification which indicates that an individual possesses the knowledge and experience required to develop and manage an enterprise information security (infosec) program.

Compliance, risk and governance

This glossary contains definitions related to compliance. Some definitions explain the meaning of words used in compliance regulations. Other definitions are related to the strategies that compliance officers use to mitigate risk and create a manageable compliance infrastructure.

• protected health information (PHI) or personal health information

  Protected health information (PHI), also referred to as personal health information, generally refers to demographic information, medical histories, test and laboratory results, mental health conditions, insurance information, and other data that a healthcare professional collects to identify an individual and determine appropriate care.

• Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

  The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) is United States legislation that defines a framework of guidelines and security standards to protect government information, operations and assets.

• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

  The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 is a federal law that places restrictions on telephone solicitations and robocalls.

CRM

The goal of customer experience management (CEM) is to optimize customer satisfaction at each touchpoint of the customer journey. Definitions in this glossary include terms about marketing and creating a customer-centric view of business, the use of AI and RPA in martech, capturing and analyzing customer feedback and contact center automation.

• customer satisfaction (CSAT)

  In customer relationship management, customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a measure of the degree to which a product or service meets customer expectations.

• speech recognition

  Speech recognition, or speech-to-text, is the ability for a machine or program to identify words spoken aloud and convert them into readable text.

• contact center as a service (CCaS)

  Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is a framework for contact center infrastructure management that combines the principles of contact center hosting and cloud-based contact center infrastructure.

ERP

Terms related to business, including definitions about project management and words and phrases about human resources, finance and vertical industries.

• Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)

  A Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) is one in which the most important criteria for evaluating employee performance is the completion of satisfactory work on time. This type of workplace environment was popular with startups in the early days of the internet and has received renewed interest because of COVID-19.

• demand planning

  Demand planning is the process of forecasting the demand for a product or service so it can be produced and delivered more efficiently and to the satisfaction of customers.

• CIO (Chief Information Officer)

  A chief information officer (CIO) is the corporate executive in charge of information technology (IT) strategy and implementation.

Government IT

Terms related to government IT, including definitions about specific federal, state and local government programs as well as words and phrases about policy and compliance.

• Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

  The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) is United States legislation that defines a framework of guidelines and security standards to protect government information, operations and assets.

• United Launch Alliance (ULA)

  United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a private aerospace launch provider. Formed in 2006, ULA is a joint venture between The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corporation

• Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21)

  Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21) is an infrastructure protection and resilience directive in the United States that aims to strengthen and secure the country's critical infrastructure.

Healthcare IT

Terms related to healthcare IT, including definitions about healthcare information and management systems and words and phrases about electronic health records, meaningful use, government regulations and medical technology.

• protected health information (PHI) or personal health information

  Protected health information (PHI), also referred to as personal health information, generally refers to demographic information, medical histories, test and laboratory results, mental health conditions, insurance information, and other data that a healthcare professional collects to identify an individual and determine appropriate care.

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

  HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

• What is cybersecurity? Everything you need to know

  Cybersecurity is the protection of internet-connected systems -- including hardware, software and data -- from cyberattacks.

HR management

• Zoom fatigue (virtual meeting fatigue)

  Zoom fatigue, also known as virtual meeting fatigue, is the feeling of exhaustion that often occurs after attending a series of virtual video meetings. In this context, the label "Zoom" is used generically; the phenomenon can be applied to any video conferencing platform that permits gallery views.

• people analytics (HR analytics)

  People analytics, also known as HR analytics and talent analytics, is the use of data analysis on candidate and employee issues to understand their impact on business goals and evaluate the effectiveness of human resources initiatives.

• employee experience

  Employee experience is a worker's perceptions about his or her journey through all the touchpoints at a particular company, starting with job candidacy through to the exit from the company.

IT procurement

Terms related to the activities and procedures necessary to acquire information technology (IT) products and services.

• supply chain

  A supply chain is the network of all the individuals, organizations, resources, activities and technology involved in the creation and sale of a product.

• Avaya

  Avaya is an American technology company that specializes in business communications services, such as unified communications (UC), and contact center (CC).

• RFI (request for information)

  An RFI (request for information) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers of a good or service.

Network management

Terms related to managing computer networks, including definitions about LANS or WANS and words and phrases about network design, troubleshooting, security and backups.

• desktop virtualization

  Desktop virtualization is the concept of isolating a logical operating system (OS) instance from the client that is used to access it.

• OTA update (over-the-air update)

  An over-the-air (OTA) update is the wireless delivery of new software, firmware, or other data to mobile devices.

• zero client

  Zero client, also known as ultrathin client, is a server-based computing model in which the end user's computing device has no local storage.

Project management

Terms related to project management, including definitions about project management methodologies and tools.

• Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)

  A Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) is one in which the most important criteria for evaluating employee performance is the completion of satisfactory work on time. This type of workplace environment was popular with startups in the early days of the internet and has received renewed interest because of COVID-19.

• demand planning

  Demand planning is the process of forecasting the demand for a product or service so it can be produced and delivered more efficiently and to the satisfaction of customers.

• cost management

  Cost management is the process of planning and controlling the budget of a business.

Security management

Terms related to security management, including definitions about intrusion detection systems (IDS) and words and phrases about asset management, security policies, security monitoring, authorization and authentication.

• DevSecOps

  SecOps is a management approach that connects security and operations teams, similar to how DevOps unifies software developers and operations professionals.

• CISO as a service (vCISO, virtual CISO, fractional CISO)

  A CISO as a service (CISOaaS) is the outsourcing of CISO (chief information security officer) and information security leadership responsibilities to a third-party provider.

• access control

  Access control is a security technique that regulates who or what can view or use resources in a computing environment.

SEO

Definitions related to search engine optimization, including definitions about SEO and words and phrases about bots, spiders, organic traffic and all areas of search engine marketing (SEM).

• metadata

  Metadata is data that describes other data. 

• microdata

  Microdata is a type of specification language that is embedded within HTML content to improve machine readability, annotate elements and analyze web pages.

• Click to Tweet

  Click to Tweet is a website that automatically generates links for users to share content through their own Twitter accounts.

Software asset management

Terms related to software management, including definitions about licensing and words and phrases about software lifecycle management and software asset management.

• predictive analytics

  Predictive analytics is a form of advanced analytics that uses both new and historical data to forecast activity, behavior and trends.

• DevOps as a Service

  DevOps as a Service is a delivery model for a set of tools that facilitates collaboration between an organization's software development team and the operations team.

• testing as a service (TaaS)

  Testing as a service (TaaS) is an outsourcing model in which testing activities associated with some of an organization's business activities are performed by a service provider rather than in-house employees.

Storage management

Terms related to data storage management, including definitions about enterprise storage and words and phrases about storage infrastructure, storage capacity and hierarchical storage management (HSM).

• paging

  Paging is a function of memory management where a computer will store and retrieve data from a device’s secondary storage to the primary storage.

• Fibre Channel switch (FC switch)

  A Fibre Channel switch is a networking device that is compatible with the Fibre Channel (FC) protocol and designed for use in a dedicated storage area network (SAN).

• SAN switch (storage area network switch)

  A storage area network (SAN) switch is a device that connects servers and shared pools of storage devices and is dedicated to moving storage traffic.