The MSM Glossary - the hardest part is using the same language

The Microsoft Solutions for Management team have just released their MSM glossary. This puts into one place all of the terminology used in their Operations Framework (MOF) and Solutions Framework (MSF) guides - like the recent capacity planning guide update.

It also goes a long way towards solving the first step of any shared problem:

First, you've got to agree on the language.

I don't care who you are or what you do: if you're working on a problem with someone else and you don't use the same words (or use the same words to mean different things), you've just doubled the difficulty of that problem. Unfortunately, if and when you do unify your terminology, someone can feel like they "lost" because language is such a personal thing. By acting as a "neutral third party", hopefully this glossary can take some of the sting out of that. Oh, and maybe it'll stop people from wasting their time reinventing that rolling thing - you know, it's round - we really should agree on what to call it…