An alternative to generating a vocabulary is to create one by hand. Creating a vocabulary by hand requires more effort then generating one, yet has the potential advantage of forcing you to carefully consider the elements to include in your vocabulary.

The first step in creating a Vocabulary is to collect information about the specifics of the business problem you are trying to solve. This step usually includes research into the more general business context in which the problem exists. Various resources may be available to you to help in this process, including:

  • Interviews—The business users and subject matter experts are often the best source of information about how business is conducted. They may not know how the process is supposed to work, or how it could work, but in general, no one knows better how a business process or task is performed than those who actually perform it.
  • Company policies and procedures—Any written policies and procedures are an excellent source of information about how a process is supposed to work and the rules that govern the process. Understanding the gaps between what is supposed to happen and what actually happens can provide valuable insight into problems.
  • Existing systems and data sources— Systems address specific business needs, but needs often change faster than systems can keep up. Understanding what the systems were designed to do versus how they are actually used often provides clues about the core problems. Also, business logic contained in these legacy systems often captures business policies and procedures (the business rules!) that are not recorded anywhere else.
  • Forms and reports—Even in heavily automated businesses, forms and reports are often used extensively. These documents can be very useful for understanding the details of a business process. Reports also illustrate the expected output from a system, and highlight the information users require.

Analyze the chosen scenario or existing business rules in order to identify the relevant terms and the relationships among these terms. Statements that express the relevant terms and relationships are called facts, and Progress recommends developing a Fact Model to more clearly illustrate how they fit together. A simple example shows you the creation of a Fact Model and its subsequent development into a Vocabulary for use in Corticon Studio.