Glossary

analytical model

a statistical model that is designed to perform a specific task or to predict the probability of a specific event.

baseline

the initial performance prediction against which the output data from later tasks is compared.

business entity

an object in your business domain. An entity has one or more terms, which are attributes of an entity. For example, the business entity could be the customer, and the associated terms could be the name, account number, account type, and so on.

business rule (rule)

a statement of business logic that specifies conditions to be evaluated and actions to be taken if those conditions are satisfied.

business rule flow package

a business rule flow that has been saved to an XML file.

business rule service

a business rule flow that has been implemented as a web service.

candidate model

a predictive model that evaluates a model's predictive power as compared with the champion model's predictive power.

challenger model

a model that is compared and assessed against a champion model for the purpose of replacing the champion model in a production scoring environment.

champion model

the best predictive model that is chosen from a pool of candidate models in a data mining environment.

channel

a virtual communication path for distributing information. In SAS, a channel is identified with a particular topic. Using the features of the Publishing Framework, authorized users or applications can publish digital content to the channel, and authorized users and applications can subscribe to the channel in order to receive the content.

classification model

a predictive model that has a categorical, ordinal, or binary target.

clustering model

a model in which data sets are divided into mutually exclusive groups in such a way that the observations for each group are as close as possible to one another, and different groups are as far as possible from one another.

data object

an object that holds the business data that is required to execute workflow tasks.

data source (source)

a table, view, or file from which you will extract information. Sources can be in any format that SAS can access, on any supported hardware platform. The metadata for a source is typically an input to a job.

decision tree

a set of rules that split data into a hierarchy of successive segments, and which can be used, for example, to determine a single result or appropriate action. The leaves represent an optimal segmentation of the branches above them according to a statistical measure.

file reference

See fileref

fileref (file reference)

a name that is temporarily assigned to an external file or to an aggregate storage location such as a directory or a folder. The fileref identifies the file or the storage location to SAS.

Gini coefficient

a benchmark statistic that is a measure of the inequality of distribution, and that can be used to summarize the predictive accuracy of a model.

identity

See metadata identity

input variable

a variable that is used in a data mining process to predict the value of one or more target variables.

key

See lookup key

Kolmogorov-Smirnov chart

a chart that shows the measurement of the maximum vertical separation, or deviation between the cumulative distributions of events and non-events.

library reference

See libref

libref (library reference)

a SAS name that is associated with the location of a SAS library. For example, in the name MYLIB.MYFILE, MYLIB is the libref, and MYFILE is a file in the SAS library.

lookup key (key)

a value that uniquely identifies a specific record and its order among other records in a database or table.

lookup table

a table that contains lookup keys and their corresponding values.

lookup value

the value that is associated with a lookup key in a lookup table.

metadata

descriptive data about data that is stored and managed in a database, in order to facilitate access to captured and archived data for further use.

metadata identity (identity)

a metadata object that represents an individual user or a group of users in a SAS metadata environment. Each individual and group that accesses secured resources on a SAS Metadata Server should have a unique metadata identity within that server.

model function

the type of statistical model, such as classification, prediction, or segmentation.

model scoring (scoring)

the process of applying a model to new data in order to compute outputs.

package

See package file

package file (package)

a container for data that has been generated or collected for delivery to consumers by the SAS Publishing Framework. Packages can contain SAS files, binary files, HTML files, URLs, text files, viewer files, and metadata.

participant

a user, group, or role that is assigned to a task. These users, groups, and roles are defined in SAS metadata and are mapped to standard roles for the workflow.

PMML

See Predictive Modeling Markup Language

policy

a workflow element that associates event-driven logic with a task or subflow. Policies are usually triggered automatically by an event such as a status change or a timer event.

prediction model

a model that predicts the outcome of an interval target.

Predictive Modeling Markup Language (PMML)

an XML based standard for representing data mining results for scoring purposes. It enables the sharing and deployment of data mining results between applications and across data management systems.

project

a collection of models, SAS programs, data tables, scoring tests, performance data, and reporting documents.

rule

See business rule

rule flow

a logical collection of multiple rule sets that define multiple conditions and actions. Rule flows can be tested and deployed as SAS programs and services that process input data, which contain conditions, in order to create output data, which contain actions.

rule set

a logical group of business rules.

SAS code model

a SAS program or a DATA step fragment that computes output values from input values. An example of a SAS code model is the LOGISTIC procedure.

SAS Content Server

a server that stores digital content (such as documents, reports, and images) that is created and used by SAS client applications. To interact with the server, clients use WebDAV-based protocols for access, versioning, collaboration, security, and searching.

SAS Metadata Repository

a container for metadata that is managed by the SAS Metadata Server.

SAS Metadata Server

a multi-user server that enables users to read metadata from or write metadata to one or more SAS Metadata Repositories.

scoring

See model scoring

scoring function

a user-defined function that is created by the SAS Scoring Accelerator from a scoring model and that is deployed inside the database.

scoring test

a workflow that executes a model's score code.

segmentation model

a model that identifies and forms segments, or clusters, of individual observations that are associated with an attribute of interest.

source

See data source

swimlane

a workflow diagram element that enables you to group tasks that are assigned to the same participant.

task

See workflow task

task status

the outcome of a task in a workflow. The status of a task (for example, Started, Canceled, Approved) is typically used to trigger the next task.

term

an attribute of a business entity. Terms might or might not have a list of valid values. For example, a customer entity might have terms such as account type or age. Valid values for the account type term might include "commercial" or "personal."

universally unique identifier (UUID)

a number that is used to uniquely identify information in distributed systems without significant central coordination. There are 32 hexadecimal characters in a UUID, and these are divided into five groups with hyphens between them as follows: 8-4-4-4-12. Altogether the 16-byte (128-bit) canonical UUID has 36 characters (32 alphanumeric characters and 4 hyphens). For example: 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000

UUID

See universally unique identifier

vocabulary

the set of business entities that define your business domain.

WebDAV server

an HTTP server that supports the collaborative authoring of documents that are located on the server. The server supports the locking of documents, so that multiple authors cannot make changes to a document at the same time. It also associates metadata with documents in order to facilitate searching. The SAS business intelligence applications use this type of server primarily as a report repository. Common WebDAV servers include the Apache HTTP Server (with its WebDAV modules enabled), Xythos Software's WebFile Server, and Microsoft Corporation's Internet Information Server (IIS).

workflow

a series of tasks, together with the participants and the logic that is required to execute the tasks. A workflow includes policies, status values, and data objects.

workflow definition

a workflow template that has been uploaded to the server and activated. Workflow definitions are used by the SAS Workflow Engine to create new workflow instances.

workflow instance

a workflow that is running in the SAS Workflow Engine. After a workflow template is uploaded to the server and activated, client applications can use the template to create and run a new copy of the workflow definition. Each new copy is a workflow instance.

workflow task (task)

a workflow element that associates executable logic with an event such as a status change or timer event.

workflow template

a model of a workflow that has been saved to an XML file.