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| Concept | Definition |
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| Project terms | |
| Evaluation project | A project that allows, starting from a measurement project and a concept model of a nonfunctional requirement project, assigning indicators, and performing the calculation in an evaluation process. |
| Measurement project | A project that allows, starting from a nonfunctional requirements project, assigning metrics to attributes, and recording the values in a measurement process. |
| MEProject (i.e., measurement and evaluation project) | A project that integrates related nonfunctional requirements, measurement and evaluation projects, and then allows managing and keeping track of all related metadata and data. |
| Project | Planned temporal effort, which embraces the specification of activities and resources constraints performed to reach a particular goal. |
| Nonfunctional requirements project | A project that allows specifying nonfunctional requirements for measurement and evaluation activities. |
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| Nonfunctional requirements terms | |
| Attribute (synonyms: property, feature) | A measurable physical or abstract property of an entity category. |
| Calculable concept (synonym: characteristic, dimension) | Abstract relationship between attributes of entities and information needs. |
| Concept model (synonyms: factor, feature model) | The set of subconcepts and the relationships between them, which provide the basis for specifying the concept requirement and its further evaluation or estimation. |
| Entity | A concrete object that belongs to an entity category. |
| Entity category (synonym: object) | Object category that is to be characterized by measuring its attributes. |
| Information need | Insight necessary to manage objectives, goals, risks, and problems. |
| Requirement tree | A requirement tree is a constraint to the kind of relationships among the elements of the concept model, regarding the graph theory. |
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| Context terms | |
| Context | A special kind of entity representing the state of the situation of an entity, which is relevant for a particular information need. The situation of an entity involves the task, the purpose of that task, and the interaction of the entity with other entities as for that task and purpose. |
| Context property (synonyms: context attribute, feature) | An attribute that describes the context of a given entity; it is associated to one of the entities that participates in the described context. |
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| Measurement terms | |
| Calculation method | A particular logical sequence of operations specified for allowing the realization of a formula or indicator description by a calculation. |
| Direct metric (synonyms: base, single metric) | A metric of an attribute that does not depend upon a metric of any other attribute. |
| Indirect metric (synonyms: derived, hybrid metric) | A metric of an attribute that is derived from metrics of one or more other attributes. |
| Measure | The number or category assigned to an attribute of an entity by making a measurement. |
| Measurement | An activity that uses a metric definition in order to produce a measure’s value. |
| Measurement method (synonyms: counting rule, protocol) | The particular logical sequence of operations and possible heuristics specified for allowing the realization of a direct metric description by a measurement. |
| Metric | The defined measurement or calculation method and the measurement scale. |
| Scale | A set of values with defined properties. Note. The scale type depends on the nature of the relationship between values of the scale. The scale types mostly used in software engineering are classified into nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio, and absolute. |
| Unit | A particular quantity defined and adopted by convention, with which other quantities of the same kind are compared in order to express their magnitude relative to that quantity. |
| Evaluation terms | |
| Decision criterion (synonym: acceptability level) | Thresholds, targets, or patterns used to determine the need for action or further investigation, or to describe the level of confidence in a given result. |
| Elementary indicator (synonyms: elementary preference, criterion) | An indicator that does not depend upon other indicators to evaluate or estimate a calculable concept. |
| Elementary model (synonym: elementary criterion function) | Algorithm or function with associated decision criteria that model an elementary indicator. |
| Evaluation (synonym: calculation) | Activity that uses an indicator definition in order to produce an indicator’s value. |
| Global indicator (synonyms: global preference, criterion) | An indicator that is derived from other indicators to evaluate or estimate a calculable concept. |
| Global model (synonyms: scoring, aggregation model, or function) | Algorithm or function with associated decision criteria that model a global indicator. |
| Indicator (synonym: criterion) | The defined calculation method and scale in addition to the model and decision criteria in order to provide an estimate or evaluation of a calculable concept with respect to defined information needs. |
| Indicator value (synonym: preference value) | The number or category assigned to a calculable concept by making an evaluation. |
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