Glossary Terms Governance Model

A practical implementation pattern that scales from a Proof of Concept to enterprise deployment.

If you're involved in implementing Microsoft Purview or designing an enterprise data governance model, I'd be interested to hear how you're approaching glossary management within your organisation.

Do you manage a single enterprise glossary, separate domain glossaries, or a combination of both?

I'd love to hear your experiences and any lessons you've learned.

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Understanding the Enterprise and Local Glossary Terms Governance Model

This diagram demonstrates a scalable approach to managing Glossary Terms in Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog.

The objective is simple:

Create enterprise business terminology once, reuse it across the organisation, and keep specialist business terminology within the Governance Domain that owns it.

This approach creates a Single Source of Truth for shared business language, reduces duplication, improves consistency and allows the governance model to scale as the organisation grows.

Step 1 – Create an Enterprise Glossary Terms Governance Domain

The first step is to create a dedicated Governance Domain specifically for Enterprise Glossary Terms.

For example:

Enterprise Glossary Terms

This Governance Domain becomes the central location where enterprise-wide business terminology is created, maintained and governed.

Examples include:

• Party
• Person
• Organisation
• Customer
• Employee
• Product
• Account
• Contract
• Invoice
• Order
• Transaction

These are business concepts that are commonly used across multiple business functions and Governance Domains.

Each Enterprise Glossary Term has:

• One agreed business definition.
• One accountable owner.
• One authoritative source.
• One location where it is maintained.
• Unlimited reuse across Data Products.

Think of this Governance Domain as the organisation's enterprise business dictionary.

Step 2 – Create Business Governance Domains

Next, create Governance Domains that reflect your organisational structure.

For example:

• Finance
• Sales
• Human Resources
• Meat, Dairy & Approved Establishments

Each Governance Domain is responsible for:

• Its own Data Products.
• Its own local Glossary Terms.
• Its own stewardship and governance.

Step 3 – Create Local Glossary Terms

Not every business term belongs in the Enterprise Glossary.

Many terms are only relevant to a single business function and should remain owned within that local Governance Domain.

For example:

Finance

• General Ledger
• Cost Centre
• Budget Code
• Payment Run

Sales

• Sales Channel
• Campaign
• Opportunity
• Discount Code

Human Resources

• Job Grade
• Leave Type
• Shift Pattern
• Pay Band

Meat, Dairy & Approved Establishments

• Establishment Type
• Hygiene Rating
• Carcass Classification
• Milk Cooler Capacity

These Local Glossary Terms remain within their own local Governance Domain because they are not intended for enterprise-wide reuse. They can be seen in the Enterprise Glossary.

Step 4 – Create Data Products

Each Governance Domain creates the Data Products it owns.

Examples include:

Finance

Financial Reporting

Sales

Sales Orders

Human Resources

Employee Directory

Meat, Dairy & Approved Establishments

Establishment Inspections

The Data Product becomes the business representation of a collection of related data.

Step 5 – Reuse Enterprise Glossary Terms

When creating a Data Product, associate the Enterprise Glossary Terms that describe the business concepts used by that Data Product.

For example:

Financial Reporting

Uses:

• Customer
• Account
• Transaction
• Invoice

Sales Orders

Uses:

• Customer
• Product
• Contract
• Order

Employee Directory

Uses:

• Person
• Employee
• Organisation

Establishment Inspections

Uses:

• Organisation
• Party
• Product

Notice that these Enterprise Glossary Terms are not recreated inside each Governance Domain.

Instead, they are referenced from the Enterprise Glossary Terms Governance Domain.

This is the key principle behind the model:

Create once. Reuse many times.

Step 6 – Add Local Glossary Terms

Each Data Product can also reference Local Glossary Terms from its own Governance Domain.

For example:

Financial Reporting

Also uses:

• General Ledger
• Cost Centre

Sales Orders

Also uses:

• Sales Channel

Employee Directory

Also uses:

• Job Grade

Establishment Inspections

Also uses:

• Inspection
• Risk Category

Each Data Product therefore combines:

• Enterprise Glossary Terms
• Local Glossary Terms

This provides consistent enterprise language while still allowing each business area to manage its own specialist terminology.

Why this model works

This implementation separates enterprise business language from specialist business language.

Enterprise Glossary Terms provide:

• A Single Source of Truth.
• One agreed definition.
• One accountable owner.
• Reuse across every Governance Domain.

Local Glossary Terms provide:

• Business-specific terminology.
• Local ownership.
• Specialist business knowledge.
• Flexibility without affecting enterprise standards.

Together they provide:

• Reduced duplication.
• Consistent business language.
• Easier governance.
• Better Discovery Search.
• Simpler maintenance.
• Reusable metadata.
• A scalable governance model.

Relationship with the Conceptual Data Model

The Enterprise Glossary answers the question:

What business concepts does the organisation use?

The Conceptual Data Model answers:

How are those business concepts related?

For example:

Customer

      │

places│

      ▼

Order

      │

contains

      ▼

Product

The Enterprise Glossary defines each business concept.

The Conceptual Data Model describes how those concepts relate to one another.

Together they establish a common business language that can be reused consistently across Governance Domains, Data Products and the wider Enterprise Data Catalogue.

Microsoft Purview Implementation Steps

1. Create a Governance Domain called Enterprise Glossary Terms.
2. Create enterprise-wide Glossary Terms within this Governance Domain.
3. Assign an accountable owner for each Enterprise Glossary Term.
4. Create business Governance Domains that reflect the organisation.
5. Create Local Glossary Terms only where the terminology is unique to that Governance Domain.
6. Create Data Products within each Governance Domain.
7. Associate Enterprise Glossary Terms with Data Products wherever the same business meaning applies.
8. Associate Local Glossary Terms with Data Products where specialist business terminology is required.
9. Continue expanding the Enterprise Glossary as new shared business concepts emerge.

Key Principle

Create once. Reuse everywhere. Keep local terms local.

Enterprise Glossary Terms establish the organisation's shared business language, while Local Glossary Terms allow individual Governance Domains to manage specialist terminology. Together they provide a scalable governance model for Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog that supports Federated Data Governance, Data Mesh principles, and long-term enterprise growth without unnecessary duplication of business definitions.