OPF Glossary - B

bandwidth
the information-carrying capability of a digital communications network.
baseline
n. a formally identified cohesive set of one or more configuration items that is to be established by a certain milestone.
Note that a baseline can only be changed by means of the formal configuration control task.
vb. to place a work product under configuration control and identify it as part of a baseline.
beta testing
the launch testing of an application in its production environments by a few key users prior to acceptance testing and its release to the entire user community.
blackbox testing
the testing technique that only uses information about something's interfaces (i.e., without regard to its implementation).
Contrast with graybox testing and whitebox testing.
boundary value
a value that lies on the boundary of a specified range of valid input, internal, or output values.
Note that defects are often produced by errors involving boundary values.
Example is the "off by one" defect in the coding of loop variables.
boundary value testing
the test case identification technique that selects test case values that are equal to or close to boundary values.
branch coverage
a test coverage criteria that requires that each decision point of each possible branch be executed by at least one test case.
Also known as decision coverage.
Contrast with condition coverage, path coverage, and statement coverage.
branch testing
the test case identification technique that selects test values so that each decision has at least one true and one false outcome.
Contrast with condition testing, path testing, and statement testing.
brand identity
the information that clearly identifies the customer organization's business enterprise to both its external and internal stakeholders. This includes:
bridge
a network connectivity device that connects two networks or physical network segments by operating at the data link layer of the OSI model.
Note that bridges are useful for small networks using protocols that cannot be routed. Bridges selectively determine the appropriate setment to which to pass each signal.
brouter
a network connectivity device that connects two networks or physical network segments by acting as a router for routable protocols (e.g., TCP/IP) and as a bridge for nonroutable protocols (e.g., NetBEUI).
Note that a brouter thus combines the strength of both bridges and routers, but are more complex and expensive than either.
browser
a client software tool enabling the display and navigation of webpages and the execution of associated execuable files (e.g., sound and video clips, Java applets) over the World Wide Web.
bug
Synonym for a software defect.
build
a relatively short duration stage that forms an identified part of a phase.
business
a integration work product that models a business that interacts with the customer organization or user organization.
business architect
the role that is played when a person produces the architecture of the customer organization’s business enterprise.
Contrast with database architect, hardware architect, information architect, security architect, software architect, and system architect.
business architecting
the architecting activity during which the architecture of the customer organization's business enterprise is produced.
business architecture
either the current or reengineered architecture of a business capturing its major components (and their responsibilities and relationships) as well as its major mechanisms (i.e., how these components collaborate to meet the requirements of the business enterprise).
business architecture document
the architecture work product produced during the architecting activity that summarizes the new architecture of the customer organization's reengineered business enterprise.
business communication plan
the deployment work product produced during business engineering that documents the customer organization's plans for communicating information about its newly reengineered business enterprise to both its internal and external stakeholders.
business data
a business engineering implementation work product that models the data components of the customer organization's business enterprise.
business reengineering
the engineering of the new business enterprise of the customer organization.
business reengineering cycle
the cycle consisting of all phases during which the client organization’s business enterprise is [re]engineered.
business facility
a component of a business consisting of one of its facilities (e.g., manufacturing).
business goal
a goal of the application that is primarily of management interest, such as cost, time to market, etc.
Contrast with operational goal and quality goal.
business implementation
the subactivity of implementation that results in the implementation of business changes.
business model
a model of the business in terms of the terminology of the domain experts and users without regard to any specific system or software application. The main objectives of a business model are to formally represent the business in terms of the essential business objects and how they collaborate to perform the major business processes. The business model forms the basis for understanding and engineering (or reengineering) the business and its processes. The business model typically consists of a business-level use case model and associated object model.
business object model (BOM)
the architecture work product produced during business engineering that documents the object model of the customer organization's newly architected business.
business optimization phase
the second phase of the business engineering cycle during which the development organization helps the customer organization optimize all or part of its business enterprise by implementing, communicating, and continually optimizing its new business strategies and architectures.
business organization
a component of a business modeling one of its organizations.
business organization chart
the architecture work product produced during business engineering that documents the structure of the customer organizations.
business process
a component of a business that models a process performed by the business.
business process model (BPM)
the architecture work product produced during business engineering that documents the customer organization’s business processes.
business reengineering project
a project, the mission of which is to [re]engineer the customer organization’s business enterprise.
Contrast with application development project.
business relationship
a component of a business that models one of its relationships to another organization.
business requirements engineering
the subactivity of engineering the requirements of a business.
business rule
a rule describing how a business operates that is treated as a requirement or a design constraint.
business strategist
the role that is played when a person develops the business strategy for a customer organization’s business enterprise.
business strategy
the strategy to be used to reengineer a customer organization’s business.
business strategy phase
the first phase of the business engineering cycle during which the development organization develops new strategies and architectures for all or part of the customer organization’s business enterprise.
business strategy team
the teamt that produces the customer organization’s new business strategy during the activities of business engineering.
business-to-business (B2B) server
a server computer used to handle communication between a data center and the associated business’ business partners and suppliers as well as to support partner and supplier management.
business transition plan
the architecture work product produced during business engineering that documents the customer organization’s plans for transitioning their business based on the results of business engineering.
business vision statement (BVS)
the requirements work product produced during business (re)engineering that documents the customer organization's vision of the reengineered business.
bus [network]
a network in which all computers are connected via a single cable with a terminator on each end.
For example, an Ethernet network that is connected with Thinnet coaxial cable.
Contrast with mesh network, ring network, and star network.