Glossary

Definitions of the key terms and abbreviations you'll meet in VIMS. Some are industry inspection regimes; the exact naming may follow your organisation's conventions.

Term	Meaning
Answer	The response recorded against an inspection item: Yes, No, NS (Not Seen), or NA (Not Applicable). Answering No raises an observation.
Auto Fill	An inspection model setting that pre-populates a new inspection with the model's items.
Cause	The reason recorded on an observation, chosen from the Cause master list.
Chapter / Section / Question / Sub-question	The hierarchy that makes up an inspection model.
Closed	An inspection stage (finalised), and also the state of an observation that has been resolved.
Draft	The first inspection stage — the inspection is being carried out.
Empty model	An inspection model with no fixed question list; observations are added freely.
Entity	An organisation involved in inspections: an Inspection Company, Ship Owner, or Technical Operator. See Entity Management.
Fleet Group	A grouping of vessels, used for filtering and planning.
Flag	The flag state (country of registration) of a vessel.
IMO	The vessel's IMO number — a unique identifier for the ship.
Inspection	An assessment of a vessel, based on an inspection model. See Inspections.
Inspection Model	The template (chapters, sections, questions) an inspection is carried out against. See Inspection Models.
Inspector	A person who carries out inspections. See Inspector Management.
ISMi	An inspection type tracked in VIMS; its last and next-due dates appear on the Planning page.
Knowledge Sharing	A flag on an observation marking it for knowledge sharing.
Marine / Technical Superintendent	The users responsible for a vessel; set on the vessel record and on Planning.
Observation	A finding recorded against an item during an inspection, tracked from Open to Closed. See Observations.
Office	The office a user belongs to.
Operation	A vessel operation selected on an inspection, from the Operation master list.
PSC	Port State Control — inspections by port authorities. PSC models add PSC Action Codes to observations.
Rating	An inspection's overall rating.
Rejection	A record that a vessel was rejected by an entity, for a stated reason. See Rejections.
Responsibility	The responsible party recorded on an observation, from the Responsibility master list.
Reviewed / Under Review	The middle inspection stages, covering technical review.
Risk	An observation's risk rating: Low, Medium, or High.
Role	The set of permissions assigned to a user; it controls what they can see and do.
Score	A vessel's inspection score, shown as a colour-coded badge (🟢 ≥70, 🟡 45–69, 🔴 <45).
SIRE	Ship Inspection Report Programme — a tanker inspection regime.
SIRE 2	The updated SIRE regime. In VIMS its observations add a Category (Process, Human, Hardware, Photograph) and SOC / NOC comment entries.
STIR	An inspection type tracked in VIMS; its last and next-due dates appear on the Planning page.
Task	A scheduled piece of inspection-related work. See Task Scheduler.
Technical Review	A review step required for certain inspection models before an inspection is finalised.
VBIS	A recognition/prize; inspections that earned it show a 🏆 trophy in the list.
Vessel	A ship recorded in VIMS. See Vessel Master.
Vessel Type	The type/category of a vessel, from the Vessel Type master list.