I believe many of us who are confronted with the impact of a lack of shared definitions and rules know how badly this is needed.

Collibra is focussing on exactly this. Creating a business friendly glossary with definitions, examples, but also business facts and rules using OMG's new Semantics for Business Vocabulary and business Rules (SBVR) standard.
Because we can add the necessary formality, organisations can automatically generate technical data models (UML, XSD, …) out of the glossary. This provides a closed loop governance and transparency between the business and the technical implementations, which is in our view extremely important to achieve the required business benefits.

We also take into account different definitions by different communities of interest (the extremely important notion of context someone referred to).

As a front-end, we use the wiki-paradigm, which makes it extremely easy to involve all stakeholders, business and IT.

There are only two books on Beginner’s French I recommend, this Made Simple-book and French Demystified: A Self – Teaching Guide.

If you want to learn at a slower pace and not so intensively then Demystified is a better choice, this Made Simple-book is more intense, which makes it more difficult for some people.
They are equally good in my opinion and I enjoyed working with both: Demystified feels more laid-back and not so stressful, but Made Simple has more reading passages and a larger variety of exercises.

This book is an updated version of the older French (Made Simple Books). You may ask yourself whether it’s worth the extra money to get this new edition rather than the old one…well, I have both of them and I say: Yes !

Why ?:
> the book is a standard-sized textbook and not pocket anymore
> fonts are larger, making the text easier to read
> updated modern vocabulary
> more excercises
> the grammar is more thoroughly explained
> more reading passages
> the pronunciation guide uses a simpler system based on American English
> the story takes place partly in the US and partly in France – the previous books took place in the UK and France

The prospective buyer should note that the first 2-3 chapters will explain the pronunciation to you, but in the following chapters only certain words and phrases that deviate from the standards are shown with a pronunciation guide.

All the dialogues in each chapter are part of a story that runs through the book: an American businessman in New York who wants to learn French and go to France for a visit, he is being taught by Frenchman living in New York.

As you might have guessed, you build up a basic business-vocabulary with words such as: ‘office, buyer, client, shipment…’
But, you also learn every-day words like: food and drinks, telling the time, words for traveling, talking about hobbies etc.

Each chapter is relatively short and you should be able to go through one in as little as 30 minutes, excercises included.

This book follows a very effective design that worked well for me:
i) shorter chapters
ii) relatively short vocabulary lists in each chapter
ii) slower and more gradual coverage of grammar

The combined effect of all these is that I learned in a truly gradual manner, and because I could go through a chapter in just 30 minutes it didn’t feel like a chore to study with this book.

By the way, expect 6-9 months to complete this book, because it is equivalent to a one-year course at college or uni.