Facility management and facilities management can be used interchangeably.

Facility Management, Facilities Management, FM: Organizational function which integrates people, place and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business.

Support Service: Non-primary activity delivered in support of core business.

Facility Process: Process which is integrated and managed by a facility management organization.

Demand: Stated requirement for a services or products to be delivered.

Service Level: Complete description of requirements of a product, process or system with their characteristics.

Service Level Agreement (SLA): Document which has been agreed between the demand organization and a service provider on performance, measurement and conditions of service delivery.

Service Provider: Organization that delivers one or more facility services.

Workplace: Physical location where work is performed.

Work Station: Location containing furniture and supporting equipment (including telephony, IT and power connections), specifically designed or suitable for work-related activities and is suitable for permanent use.

Real Also: What is Facility Management?

Core Business: Entity from which needs are derived.

Asset: Item, thing or entity that has potential or actual value to an organization.

Asset Management: Coordinated activity of an organization to realize value from assets.

Real Estate: Immoveable property including structures, grounds and undeveloped land.

Built Environment: Collection of buildings, external works (landscaped areas), infrastructure and other construction works within an area.

Facility: Collection of assets which is built, installed or established to serve an entity’s needs.

Organization: Person or group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to achieve its objectives.

Demand Organization: Entity which has a need and the authority to incur costs to have requirements met.

Competence: Ability to apply knowledge and skills to achieve intended results.

End User: Person or organization which uses products or services from a supplier.

Contract: Agreement under which two parties undertake to exchange a product for a payment.

Sourcing: Practice which identifies, evaluates and engages internal and external service providers to deliver a service or products to meet a specification.

Procurement: Activity of acquiring goods or services from suppliers.

Outsource: Make an arrangement where an external organization performs part of an organization’s function or process.

Process: Set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs into outputs.

Service: Time-perishable, intangible activity performed for an entity.

System: Contained set of interrelated processes, technologies and/or procedures.

Conformity: Fulfillment of a requirement.

Nonconformity: Non-fulfillment of a requirement.

Continual Improvement: Recurring activity to enhance performance.

Business case: Document which summarizes the scope, benefits, costs and risks of a proposed solution to a business need.

Life-Cycle Cost: Total costs (in present-value terms) expected to be spent on an asset during its operational existence.

Open-Book: Transparent exchange of relevant information (especially costs) between the facility management service provider and the demand organization.

Quality: Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfills requirements.

Risk: Effect of uncertainty.

Primary Activities: Activities that constitute the distinctive and indispensable competencies of an organization in its value chain.

Management System: Set of interrelated or interacting elements of an organization to establish policies and objectives and processes to achieve those objectives.

Deliverable: Measurable and verifiable outcome, result or item to be produced within a specific time frame to complete a project or part of a project.

Strategic Level: Level at which an organization defines its objectives and policies, and plans and assesses how to achieve its goals.

Tactical Level: Level at which an organization plans and manages the specific mechanisms and resources for operational delivery of products.

Operational level: Level at which activities are performed in a routine way in support of the organizations functions.

Sustainability: State of the global system, including environmental, social and economic aspects, in which the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Emergency Preparedness: Capability to take actions that will effectively mitigate the consequences of an emergency.

Business Continuity: Capability of the organization to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following disruptive incident..

Best practice: Documented process or product developed by the user community, consisting of suppliers and end users, working together for the purpose of establishing industry guidelines.

Measurement: Process to determine a value.

Monitoring: Determining the status of a system, a process or an activity.

Performance: Measurable result.

key performance indicator (KPI): Measure that provides essential information about the performance.

Benchmark: Reference point or metric against which process, performance and/or quality can be measured.

Benchmarking: Process of comparing processes, performances and/or quality against practices of the same nature, under the same circumstances and with similar measures.

The definition of terms is contained in the ISO 41011:2017 Facility Management — Vocabulary which is one of the ISO 41000 series of facility management standards.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 267, Facility management. You can get the full copy of the ISO 41011:2017 Facility management – Vocabulary at https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:41011:ed-1:v1:en