Glossary
This glossary explains the terms you will meet when using or evaluating Boxcurve Unity. Definitions are short and written in plain language. Terms specific to the Power Platform are defined in Unity's context only, with a pointer to Microsoft's documentation for the underlying platform detail.
Accountability and work-structure terms
Accountability Map The central, shared view that Boxcurve Unity maintains: a matrix that shows, for every task in a project, who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed. The Accountability Map is the product's primary working surface and the structure that the assignment, notification and change-history features are built around.
RACI The accountability format on which the Accountability Map is based. RACI stands for Responsible (the person who carries out the work), Accountable (the single person answerable for the outcome), Consulted (people whose input is sought) and Informed (people who are kept up to date). Each person you assign to a task is recorded against one of these accountability letters.
RACI and related accountability formats Boxcurve Unity supports RACI together with a set of related accountability formats, and a project can be converted from one format to another. The formats available in the product are RACI, RASCI, RATSI, DACI, DCI and MOCHA. Each is a variation on the same idea, naming the distinct ways a person can be involved in a task, and adds or renames letters relative to RACI.
Accountability letter / assignment A single record linking one person (a stakeholder) to one task under one accountability letter (for example, marking a person as Accountable for a task). Assignments are what populate the Accountability Map. Each assignment can carry approval, escalation and removal information (see Approval, escalation and removal).
Task A unit of work tracked in Unity. A task can be classified, scheduled, prioritised and commented on, and people are assigned to it through the Accountability Map.
Operational task A task type representing recurring, business-as-usual work focused on stability and compliance.
Project task A task type representing time-bound change that delivers a defined outcome. The distinction between operational and project tasks lets a project hold both ongoing routine work and one-off change work.
Project A container that groups related tasks and their Accountability Map. Stakeholders, departments and accountability assignments are organised within a project, and projects can be created, copied, backed up, restored, merged, compared and deleted by administrators.
Master project A designated primary project within Unity. Certain administrative actions, and some role-based permissions, behave differently for the master project than for other projects. The master project is established during first-time setup.
People and reference data
Stakeholder A person (or an AI agent recorded for governance purposes) held in Unity's managed register and available to be assigned to tasks. A stakeholder record can hold details such as name, email, job title and organisation. Only people on the stakeholder list can be assigned accountability.
Department A grouping used to organise stakeholders and tasks within Unity, allowing work to be viewed and managed by area of the organisation.
Category A classification value that can be applied to tasks to group or describe them.
Jurisdiction A reference value a task can be associated with, used to record the jurisdiction or regulatory context relevant to that work.
Task Pack A pre-built bundle of tasks that can be imported into a project, so that a project can be populated from a ready-made starting set rather than entering every task by hand.
AI agent register A capability that lets you record governance information about your own or third-party AI agents, treating each agent as a stakeholder and capturing metadata such as an audit owner, logging and retention details. This is a record-keeping feature for AI governance. Boxcurve Unity itself runs no AI and performs no automated decision-making on your data.
Roles
Boxcurve Unity defines five application roles. In the product, the role names carry a "RACI " prefix. A user's role is derived when they sign in, based on their Microsoft 365 security-group or Teams membership.
Administrator (RACI Administrator) The highest-level application role, governing project lifecycle administration, user and role management, configuration and diagnostic tasks.
Operations Manager (RACI Ops Manager) A senior role with elevated permissions over projects and assignments, particularly in relation to the master project.
Project Manager (RACI Project Manager) A role focused on managing projects and the work within them.
Team Manager (RACI Team Manager) A role for managing a team's tasks and assignments.
User (RACI User) The standard role for people who view the Accountability Map and work with the tasks assigned to them.
Workflow terms
Approval, escalation and removal Information that can be recorded against an accountability assignment to reflect its lifecycle, for example, that an assignment has been approved, escalated, or flagged for removal. This information is captured on the assignment record itself.
Change history An attributed record of who changed what and when across tasks, the Accountability Map and assignments, including the before-and-after values of a change.
Platform terms (defined in Unity's context)
The following terms come from the Microsoft platform on which Boxcurve Unity runs. They are defined here only as they relate to Unity. For how each platform works, follow the Microsoft Learn links.
Tenant Your organisation's own Microsoft 365 instance. Boxcurve Unity runs inside your tenant, and its data stays within it. See Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/
Environment The Power Platform container in which Boxcurve Unity and its data are installed and run. An organisation typically has separate environments for development, testing and production. See Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-platform/admin/environments-overview
Dataverse The Microsoft data service in which Boxcurve Unity stores all of its records, tasks, projects, stakeholders, assignments, change history and configuration. Dataverse keeps this data within your tenant and environment. See Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-platform/dataverse/
Managed solution The packaged, sealed form in which Boxcurve Unity is delivered and installed into an environment. A managed solution is maintained and updated as a unit and is not edited in place by the customer. See Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-platform/alm/solution-concepts-alm
Connection / connector A connector is the defined way Boxcurve Unity reaches another service (for example, to mirror tasks to Microsoft Planner or to send a notification). A connection is a specific, authorised instance of a connector, established by a user or administrator so that Unity can act on that service on your behalf. See Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/connectors/
For how each feature is used in practice, see the related Boxcurve Unity guides. Sign-in, identity, licensing and other platform behaviours are covered by the relevant Microsoft documentation linked above.