20 FAM 101.3
Definitions of Terms Used in 20 FAM and FAH
(CT:DATA-6; 10-01-2024)
(Office of Origin: M/SS/CFA)
20 FAM 101.3-1 Definitions
(CT:DATA-6; 10-01-2024)
Artificial Intelligence - The federal government has defined Artificial Intelligence per section 238(g) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (P.L. 115-232): the term ‘‘artificial intelligence’’ includes the following:
(1) Any artificial system that performs tasks under varying and unpredictable circumstances without significant human oversight, or that can learn from experience and improve performance when exposed to data sets.
(2) An artificial system developed in computer software, physical hardware, or other context that solves tasks requiring human-like perception, cognition, planning, learning, communication, or physical action.
(3) An artificial system designed to think or act like a human, including cognitive architectures and neural networks.
(4) A set of techniques, including machine learning, that is designed to approximate a cognitive task.
(5) An artificial system designed to act rationally, including an intelligent software agent or embodied robot that achieves goals using perception, planning, reasoning, learning, communicating, decision making, and acting.
Authoritative Data Source - Considered primary or most reliable source of a particular kind of information.
Cables - Official records of Department policies, program activities, post operations, and personnel management.
Computer Matching Agreement - An agreement between the source agency and the recipient agency (or non-federal agency) specifying terms of computerized matching programs.
Data - Recorded information, regardless of form or the media on which it is recorded.
Data Access - The ability to retrieve data stored within a repository.
Data Architecture - Architectural framework for how data is stored, managed, and used in a system. It describes how data is persistently stored, how components and processes reference and manipulate this data, how external/legacy systems access the data, interfaces to data managed by external/legacy systems, implementation of common data operations.
Data Asset - A collection of data elements or data sets that may be grouped together.
Data Governance Operating Model - The structure and responsibility for data governance activities.
Data Lifecycle - Processes that create or obtain data, those that move, transform, and store it and enable it to be maintained and shared, and those that use or apply it, as well as those that dispose or retain of it.
Data Onboarding - The collection or creation of data. Data at the Department may be onboarded by being created, collected, acquired, or downloaded from another source (such as the internet or another agency).
Data Preparation and Storage - The extraction, transformation, cleaning, loading, and retention of data for ongoing use.
Data Privacy - The proper handling of sensitive data to meet regulatory requirements around individual identity disclosure. See 5 FAM 460: Data Privacy.
Data Publication - The process of making information, particularly data generated from research, available to all.
Data Retention - Data and records management to meet legal and business data archival requirements.
Data Security - The protection of data from destructive forces and the unwanted actions of unauthorized users. See 12 FAM 500: Information Security.
Data Sharing - Availability of data to multiple applications or users across the enterprise or externally.
Data Sharing Agreement - A documented arrangement, agreement, or similar memorandum of understanding between two or more subcomponents within the Department or between the Department and a third party (e.g., another U.S. Government agency, non-federal entity, or a foreign counterpart) that outlines the parties’ roles and responsibilities around the sharing, access, and use of one or more data assets.
Data Standards - A documented agreement and specification by an authoritative body on a definition, representation, or format of data, metadata, or exchange protocol that is used to improve data understanding and data interoperability. The Department’s enterprise-level data standards are known as the Master Reference Data (MRD).
Data Steward - Person(s) accountable and responsible for data and processes that ensure effective control and use of data assets.
Data Transparency - The ability to see how data decisions are made.
Data Use - The consumption of data to support mission and management objectives.
Enterprise Data Catalog - A central repository of data assets, built on the Enterprise Data Inventory, with a user interface on OpenNet that facilitates user discovery and access to shareable data assets.
Enterprise Data Governance - The exercise of authority, control, and shared decision making (planning, monitoring, and enforcement) over the management of data assets.
Enterprise Data Inventory - A central listing of Department-wide data assets, with accompanying metadata that provide information and descriptions about each data asset's name, variables, last updated date, stewardship, use restrictions, location within the enterprise, and open data determinations and/or exemptions (if applicable).
Enterprise Data Management (EDM) - Development and execution of plans, policies, programs, and practices that acquire, control, protect and enhance the value of data assets throughout the lifecycle, led or performed by data professionals following established disciplines and functions.
Interoperability - The ability of different operating and software systems, applications, and services to communicate and exchange data in an accurate, effective, and consistent manner.
Lifecycle Data Management - Policies and procedures for acquisition, migration, retention, expiration, and disposition of data.
Master Reference Data (MRD) - A set of stable reference data sets sharable by all business teams and applications across the Department; these are the Department’s enterprise-level standard reference data (such as accounting codes, countries and areas, organizational codes, etc.).
Metadata - Structural or descriptive information about data such as content, format, source, rights, accuracy, provenance, frequency, periodicity, granularity, publisher or responsible party, contact information, method of collection, and other descriptions.
OPEN Government Data Asset - A public data asset that is machine-readable, available (or could be made available) in an open format, not encumbered by restrictions, other than intellectual property rights, including under United States Code titles 17 and 35, that would impede the use or reuse of such asset; and based on an underlying open standard that is maintained by a standards organization.
Record - see 5 FAM 415, Definitions.
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NOTE: The two works cited in this section that lack URL addresses are:
DAMA International, DAMA-DMBOK: Data Management Body of Knowledge, 2nd Edition, July 17, 2017 and U.S. Department of State, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, “Enterprise Data Strategy Common Data Vocabulary,” November 18, 2020.
Definitions that lack citations come from sources internal to the Department. |