Glossary

Agent

A governed software capability that pursues a defined outcome by using knowledge, reasoning and tools within explicit boundaries. In ETM4S4, an agent has an owner, skills, permissions, controls and evaluation—not merely a conversational persona.

Agentic mesh

A coordinated system of specialized agents, shared knowledge and control services, human decision points and operating practices. The mesh is designed around transformation outcomes rather than a collection of unrelated assistants.

Assurance agent

An agent that independently checks evidence, consistency, controls, quality gates, risks or dependencies. It should not approve the work it assesses.

Autonomy

The degree to which an agent may act without case-by-case human approval. Autonomy is contextual and ranges from observation through bounded execution and coordination.

Control-plane agent

An agent that coordinates transformation flow, value, dependencies or orchestration across multiple domains.

Domain agent

An agent specializing in an implementation capability such as process design, architecture, data, testing, security, adoption or cutover.

Evidence

Information that supports a claim or decision. Its value depends on authority, relevance, freshness, completeness and provenance.

Guardrail

A technical or procedural constraint that prevents, limits or detects undesirable behavior. Important guardrails should be enforced outside the model where practical.

Human–agent operating model

The explicit allocation of work, decisions, accountability, escalation and learning between people and agents.

Knowledge graph

A structured representation of transformation entities and relationships—for example, how a process decision affects a requirement, solution component, control, test and release.

Orchestrator

A control-plane agent or service that routes work, maintains workflow state, coordinates agents and escalates exceptions. It does not become the accountable program director.

Provenance

The record of where information came from, which versions and transformations were used, and which human decisions affected the outcome.

Skill

A modular package of instructions, methods, rules, examples and evaluation criteria that enables an agent to perform a defined professional capability.

Skill pack

A set of related skills for a context such as Lead-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay, Design-to-Operate, an industry, country localization or SAP product area.

Transformation knowledge layer

The governed shared context that connects project records, SAP knowledge, client knowledge, decisions and their relationships for use by people and agents.

Trust

A contextual judgment that a capability is dependable for a defined purpose. Trust is supported by ownership, evidence, controls, evaluation, observability and effective response to failure.