Software designed to manipulate the information in a database. It can create, sort, display selected information, search for specific information, and perform many other tasks of a database. This kind of software allows speed of access and the ability to automatically produce reports.

A repository of information about data, such as its meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage and format. The dictionary assists company management, database administrators, systems analysts and application programmers in effectively planning, controlling and evaluating the collection, storage and use of data. A data dictionary manages data categories such as alias, data elements, data records, data structure, data store, data models, data flows, data relationships, processes, functions, dynamics, size, frequency, resource consumption and other user-defined attributes.

Data management standards will provide common definitions of the data elements, their attributes, relationships, data integrity constraints, and database access rules. This includes standards for system and data protection and security.

The logical data structure developed during the logical database design process is a data model or entity model. It is also a description of the structural properties that define all entries represented in a database and all the relationships that exist among them.

A structured method for representing and describing the data used in a business function automated system. Data modeling is used in combination with two other structured methods, data flow analysis and functional decomposition, to define the high-level structure of business and information systems. Its primary function is to define the attributes of and relationships among data items.