Single version of the truth

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In computerized business management, svot, or Single Version of the Truth, is a technical concept describing the sequence and structure of a database formed by a particular but arbitrary sequencing of records. The key concept is that data combined in a certain sequence is a "truth" which may be analyzed and processed giving particular results, and that although the sequence is arbitrary (and thus another correct but equally arbitrary sequencing would ultimately provide different results in any analysis), it is desirable to agree that the sequence enshrined in the "single version of the truth" is the version that will be considered "the truth", and that any conclusions drawn from analysis of the database are valid and unarguable, and (in a technical context) the database may be duplicated to a backup environment to ensure a persistent record is kept of the "single version of the truth".

The key point is when the database is created using an external data source (such as a sequence of trading messages from a stock exchange) an arbitrary selection is made of one possibility from two or more equally valid representations of the input data, but henceforth the decision sets "in stone" one and only one version of the truth.