Idera Term Glossary�QuickStart Guide

How to access the University’s business term definitions in the Idera Term Glossary

UMN Data Literacy Program | Updated August 2025

Idera Term Glossary QuickStart Guide Index

1. Overview of the Idera Term Glossary
2. How to use the Idera Term Glossary

Overview of the Idera Term Glossary

Introduction to Idera Term Glossary

The Idera Term Glossary lists University-approved business terms that have been defined through the data governance process and approved by the Data Governance Council.

The Glossary can be used to find information about business terms, such as:

• Term definition
• Data owner/custodian
• Data security classification
• Related terms
• Terms within a data subject area

Core Term Definition Components

Each term within the Idera Term Glossary has required and optional components that provide additional information about the term, including:

Term definition: A description used to express the meaning of an enterprise data term or concept

Data owner: The office responsible for the data element; this office can be contacted with questions about the data element

Data security classification: The security classification for the data element; this classification guides the availability of data to both internal and external audiences

Related terms: terms that share a common name, data lineage, or other familiarity

Supporting Business Data Needs

The Idera Term Glossary helps University data users:

• Make informed data decisions with confidence
• Support consistent and appropriate use of data elements across the University
• Understand business rules and/or logic that are built into some data definitions and supporting notes
• Identify differences between business terms that have the same term name but multiple definitions based on the logic or use case (e.g. ethnicity, campus, year)
• Search for business terms by glossary, where terms are typically grouped based on the business data area (e.g. Student, Space), or by business need (e.g. Common Data Layer)

Approved Data Definitions in Reporting, Analytics, and Integrations

The current process to govern business terms began in 2015 and focuses on data elements that are being made available through:

• UM Analytics dashboards and subject areas
• The Common Data Layer (CDL) for integrations to other systems
• Institutional initiatives (e.g. Annual Accountability Report, PEAK, NXT Gen)
• Institutional reporting (e.g. official enrollment and headcounts produced by University Data and Institutional Reporting)

Governed business terms may not align with definitions and/or logic used in source systems, such as PeopleSoft, and the Legacy Data Warehouse.

How to use the Idera Term Glossary

Logging in to Idera Term Glossary

Access to the Idera Term Glossary is available to anyone with a University Internet ID, but the primary audiences are University faculty and staff who need information on a specific data element.

Users can login using their University�Internet ID and password at�z.umn.edu/IderaTermDefinitions.

Note: a VPN connection is required�to access the Idera Term Glossary.

Recent Upgrade Acknowledgement

A software upgrade to the Idera Term Glossary in the spring of 2023 included new features that have not yet been implemented; these features may appear empty or have unintended directionality:

• Parent glossaries
• Parent term types
• Children term types
• Parent term attributes
• Children term attributes
• Directional relationships (one term being the component of another, and vice versa)

Navigating the Idera Term Glossary

There are three main tabs that common Idera Term Glossary Z Links are directed to:

• Home: Landing page and Idera-published support materials
• Glossaries: List of all term glossaries
• Terms: List of all terms

In addition, published links may land�directly on a specific glossary or a�specific term.

What are Term Glossaries?

Idera uses glossaries to group related terms based on the business data area (e.g. Student, Space) or business need (e.g. Common Data Layer).

• Business data areas/subject areas that are built in the Enterprise Data Warehouse/UM Analytics all have a corresponding glossary
• The Recently Approved Terms glossary identifies terms that have been approved and published within the past 30-45 days
• A term may appear in more than one glossary, as it may exist in more than one business data area or business need

All Glossaries Tab

The All Glossaries subtab is a list of all glossaries.

Glossary tabs

Search: search for a glossary; adjust the ‘Search in’ parameters

Glossaries are listed alphabetically

Click the glossary name to view the terms

Click the Follow button to add to My Glossaries

Brief description of the glossary

My Glossaries Tab

The My Glossaries subtab is a customizable list of glossaries.

To unfollow a glossary, click the Following button

Term Glossary Views

Within a glossary, the most common features are the description and glossary terms.

Click on the Terms subtab to see the list of glossary terms

All Terms Tab

The Terms tab lists all business terms alphabetically.

Term tabs

Filter terms by type

Search: search for a term; adjust the ‘Search in’ parameters

View additional pages of terms

Term definition

Click the term name to view the definition and attributes

Click the Follow button to add to My Terms

My Terms Tab

The My Terms subtab is a customized list of terms if the Follow button is selected for a term..

To unfollow a term, click the Following button

Term Definitions Attributes

There are numerous attributes that may be associated with a term. The most common attributes available on the term Description subtab are:

• Term name
• Term definition
• Data security classification
• Data owner
• Additional notes
• Synonyms

Term Definitions Additional Attributes

Additional term attributes accessible in the Term navigation panel include

• Related Glossaries
• Related Terms

Due to an Idera upgrade in spring 2023, the following attributes may not be populated:

• Types (Parent)
• Types (Children)
• Attributes (Parent)
• Attributes (Children)
• Synonyms - view synonyms on a term’s description page

Related Glossaries

View of the Related Glossaries for a given term:

Views of Related Glossaries

There are two views of Related terms for a given term: Graphical, and List

Note: The directionality of the arrows in the graphical view and the To/From columns in the list view are not indicative of parent/child relationship, only that they are related. This is a feature of the recent upgrade.

UMN Data Literacy Program

Produced by the Enterprise Data Management & Reporting Office

Contact: edmr@umn.edu

This guide is part of University’s Data Literacy Program.

Explore additional resources and trainings at:

z.umn.edu/DataLiteracy