Software Engineering Terms - B

BANDWIDTH

The capacity of a communications channel.

BASELINE

A set of software components and documents to that has been formerly reviewed and

accepted, that serves as the basis for further development or current production, which

can be changed only through formal change control procedures. See Release version.

BATCH PROCESSING

A method of collecting and processing data in which transactions are accumulated and

stored until a specified time when it is convenient or necessary to process them as a

group.

BUSINESS PROCESSES

The unique ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities,

information, and knowledge to produce a product or service. For example, in a sales

environment, the information used and steps taken to record a new customer order is

considered a business process.

BUSINESS PROCESS COMPLEXITY

A project risk factor that takes into consideration the complexity of the business process

or processes under automation. Project risk is considered low when all processes involve

fairly simple data entry and update operations. Project risk is considered medium when a

minority of the business processes under automation are complex, involving multiple

steps, exchanges with external systems or significant validation/processing logic. Project

risk is considered high when a majority of the business processes under automation are

considered to be complex.

BUSINESS PROCESS MATURITY

A project risk factor that takes into consideration the maturity and stability of the business

process or processes to be automated. Project risk is considered low when standard

business processes that have been stable and in place for a significant period of time are

being automated. Project risk is considered medium when one or more nonstandard but

stable business processes, generally unique to the customers situation, are being

automated. Project risk rises significantly when the development team is attempting to

automate one or more new or unusual business processes.

BUSINESS RULE

A logical or mathematical test that determines whether data entered in a database

complies with an organization's method of conducting its operations.