People or groups adopt workplace or technical words or definitions through familiarity. These words and associated definitions become ingrained in their vocabulary because of being used in their previous companies or even in the schools they studied in. The challenge comes when two or more groups in an organization use the same word to mean different things.
To prevent such a situation, experts suggest that when following or creating an enterprise architecture taxonomy and internal dictionary, one of two sources—a common dictionary or IEEE (https://www.ieee.org/ ) standard -should be used to identify the classifications. They further advocate that the words that are specific to a corporation should be non-dictionary words, and not just misspelled, so that others should clearly understand that this is a corporate-specific term.
In following or creating enterprise architecture taxonomy and internal dictionary, it is important to stay true to the definition of words through either a common source or a standard such as the IEEE standard. However, if there is a need to create company-specific terms, use non-dictionary words like a hyphenated word. This way, ambiguity can be avoided during internal or external discussions about the components within the enterprise environment.
Another way of avoiding ambiguity is to prevent using acronyms that do not have the same meaning as the phrase associated with it. This will stop customers from getting confused about a product or a service offered by a company.
In conclusion, all corporations use so-called common definitions of terms in their environment that sometimes match common dictionaries and sometimes do not. It is precisely these terms that could be misinterpreted and become a source of confusion. So, to forestall this confusion, it is recommended to use common sources for definitions like a public dictionary and IEEE. This will ensure that company-specific terms are delineated as such, and have a clear definition.
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