Vision: A vision indicates the future strategic thrust and mission of a company and is realized through various strategies.

Strategy: Strategies are developed based on the vision. Strategies can be split into specific substrategies.

Strategic objective: Each strategy consists of a certain number of strategic objectives. Generally, management determines strategic objectives in workshops. Objectives are interconnected according to cause-and-effect relationships and chronology.

Success factor: A success factor influences the success of a company's business operations. It may interact with other success factors and direct them towards a specific behavior with a particular degree of effectiveness.

View/Perspective: A perspective puts a certain view of the company in more concrete terms. In principle, the selection of perspectives should include the following views of a company: human-oriented view, internal view, process-oriented view, and external view.

KPI: Each strategic objective or success factor is allocated KPIs to measure performance and achievement of objectives.

Actual value: Current value of a KPI, strategic objective, or success factor. Based on the actual value, the current degree of goal accomplishment can be derived by means of a planned-actual comparison.

Plan value: Plan value of a KPI, strategic objective, or success factor set as the target for a particular period. In the case of strategic objectives, this is usually a percentage derived from the weighted achievement of objectives of individual KPIs. A plan value can be broken down into individual periods and takes account of periodic fluctuations. Plan values represent a degree of goal accomplishment of 100 %.

Target value: Value set as the target for a period in the future. Generally, this value becomes the plan value once the target period is reached.

Minimum value: Smallest possible value that an objective, critical success factor, or KPI can have. In ARIS, the minimum value is set to 0 by default. However, it can be modified.

Maximum value: Highest possible value (upper limit) a strategic objective, a success factor, or a KPI can have. In ARIS, it is generally used to standardize the representation of multiple KPIs so that they can be compared.

Warning limit: The warning limit corresponds to the plan value, i.e., the plan value corresponds to the limit at which the value of a KPI, strategic objective, or success factor falls short of an expected target.

Tolerance range: The tolerance range is the negative deviation from the plan value for a strategic objective, KPI, or success factor that can still be accepted.

Alarm limit: The alarm limit denotes the plan value minus the tolerance range. All values of a strategic objective, KPI, or success factor that fall below the alarm limit are no longer acceptable.

Initiative: An initiative influences a single objective or a number of strategic objectives. Generally, initiatives are assigned a person responsible for them, and they have a starting point, an end point, resources, etc.

Indicator type: A KPI can be of the Leading indicator or Lagging indicator type. A leading indicator measures a performance driver and is an indicator pointing to the future. A lagging indicator measures a result (result indicator) and is retrospective. Economic/Financial targets are generally lagging indicators, while the targets of process, learning, and growth perspectives are increasingly leading indicators. It is recommendable to include lagging indicators in the perspectives in order to represent cause-and-effect relationships between KPIs.

Data source: Each KPI has a data source from which it can be transferred to the Balanced Scorecard system.