Glossary

Platform

The framework the software has been developed for. This information is important for certain projects like rollout, migration, or packaging projects.

The platform can be delivered as a technical information by fingerprints.

Product

See Software.

Product Family

The product family groups the history of a product developed for the same purpose, e.g. "Microsoft Office", Microsoft Project Professional, or WinZip". To be understood as "product line", therefore the family name should not tell anything about the version.

In addition this allows to manage products where the name of the publisher or the name of the product has been changed over time.

If the name of the product family (or product line) is not unique (not a brand), the name of the manufacturer should be added. The name of an edition must be part of the family name if the publisher release different editions.

Publisher

A publisher is a publishing company or the person that created the product.

Best Practice:
Use the official name of the publisher. The common short name should be preferred when defining publisher names. Avoid using legal forms.

Example:

Use Google instead of Google LLC, Google Inc, etc.

Add all other names of the publisher as alternative names. This will help recognizing more fingerprints.

Do not use names of vendors who sell or resell a product (or the use rights for a product)!