In social science and humanities, operationalization is the process of defining a fuzzy concept so as to make the concept clearly distinguishable or measurable and to understand it in terms of empirical observations. In a wider sense it refers to the process of specifying the extension of a concept — describing what is and is not a part of that concept.
Operationalization often means creating operational definitions and theoretical definitions.
Read more about Operationalization: Operationalization in The Social Sciences, Tying Operationalization To Conceptual Frameworks