Business Metadata Praise for Business Metadata
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Business Metadata Praise for Business Metadata “Despite the presence of some excellent books on what is essentially “technical” metadata, up until now there has been a dearth of well- presented material to help address the growing need for interaction at the conceptual and semantic levels between data professionals and the business clients they support. In Business Metadata, Bill, Bonnie, and Lowell provide the means for bridging the gap between the sometimes “fuzzy” human perception of data that fuels business processes and the rigid information management models used by business applications. Look to the future: next generation business intelligence, enterprise content management and search, the semantic web all will depend on business metadata. Read this book!” —David Loshin, President, Knowledge Integrity Incorporated These authors have written a book that ventures into new terri- tory for data and information management. There are several books about metadata, but this is the fi rst to offer in-depth discussion of the important topic of business metadata. Business metadata is really about understanding the business – something that IT people have struggled with since the dawn of infor- mation technology. I see this as a “must read” book for for anyone with a role in data strategy, data architecture, data governance data stewardship, IT compliance and audit, or improving data quality. Not just theory, but rich with experience-based examples, this book dives deep into the why, what, how, when, where, and who of busi- ness metadata. It is sure to be a valuable contribution to the fi eld of data management. —David L. Wells, Director of Education, TDWI: The Data Warehousing Institute Business Metadata Capturing Enterprise Knowledge W.H. Inmon Bonnie O’Neil Lowell Fryman AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is an imprint of Elsevier Publisher Denise E.M. Penrose Publishing Services Manager George Morrison Senior Project Manager Brandy Lilly Assistant Editor Mary James Cover Design Joanne Blank Composition SPI Copyeditor Betty Pessagno Proofreader Phyllis Coyne et al. Interior printer Sheridan Books Cover printer Phoenix Color Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is an imprint of Elsevier. 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA This book is printed on acid-free paper. Ó 2008 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks or registered trademarks. In all instances in which Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital or all capital letters. Readers, however, should contact the appropriate companies for more complete information regarding trademarks and registration. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, E-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete your request online via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting “Support & Contact” then “Copyright and Permission” and then “Obtaining Permissions.” Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Inmon, William H. Business metadata : the quest for business clarity / W.H. Inmon, Bonnie O’Neil, Lowell Fryman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-12-373726-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Database management. 2. Metadata. 3. Management information systems. I. O’Neil, Bonnie K. II. Fryman, Lowell. III. Title. QA76.9.D3I53744 2007 005.74–dc22 2007015136 ISBN: 978-0-12-373726-7 For information on all Morgan Kaufmann publications, visit our Web site at www.mkp.com or www.books.elsevier.com Printed in the United States of America 07 08 09 10 11 5 4 3 2 1 For my mother (who was always there for me), my father (from whom I inherited my love of words), my son, Tyler (who loves Philosophy), and my son, Chris (the movie star). —B.K.O. To my wife, Elizabeth, whose love and support have made it possible for me to complete this effort. To my children Jennifer, Jackie, and Scott. —L.F. This page intentionally left blank Brief Table of Contents Preface xix 1 Introducing Business Metadata 1 2 The Value of Business Metadata Management 25 3 Who Is Responsible for Business Metadata: Business Metadata Stewardship 37 4 Business Metadata, Communication, and Search 55 5 Initiating a Business Metadata Project 79 6 Business Metadata Capture 89 7 Capturing Business Metadata from Existing Data 121 8 Business Metadata Delivery 139 9 Business Metadata Infrastructure 157 10 Data and Information Quality as Business Metadata 175 11 Semantics and Business Metadata 195 12 Unstructured Business Metadata 219 13 Business Rules 235 14 Compliance and Business Metadata 247 vii viii Brief Table of Contents 15 Knowledge Management and Business Metadata 259 16 In Summary 273 Appendix 283 Index 287 Complete Table of Contents Preface xix Chapter 1 Introducing Business Metadata 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 A Brief History of Metadata 3 In the Beginning 4 Disk Storage 4 Access to Data 6 The Personal Computer 7 Data Warehousing 7 Metadata in Systems Evolution 9 1.3 Types of Metadata 12 Business Metadata versus Technical Metadata 12 Business Metadata 12 1.4 Where Can You Find Business Metadata? 13 Business Metadata on a Screen 13 Reports and Business Metadata 14 Corporate Forms and Business Metadata 15 1.5 Structured and Unstructured Metadata 16 A Grid for Metadata 18 1.6 Where Business Metadata Is Stored 18 1.7 When Does Business Data Become Business Metadata? 19 1.8 Business Metadata over Time 20 1.9 Reference Files: Master Data Management (MDM) and Business Metadata 21 1.10 Summary 22 ix x Complete Table of Contents Chapter 2 The Value of Business Metadata Management 25 2.1 Introduction 25 2.2 Background 26 2.3 Defi nition of Metadata Revisited 26 Library Card Catalog 27 2.4 Business Metadata’s Importance in a Report 29 2.5 Metadata Chaos 31 So Why Is Metadata Management Important? 32 Reusing Data 32 Accuracy of Information 33 2.6 Summary 34 2.7 References 35 Chapter 3 Who Is Responsible for Business Metadata: Business Metadata Stewardship 37 3.1 Introduction 38 3.2 Who Is Responsible for Business Metadata? 38 3.3 Business Metadata Stewardship Concepts 40 Ownership Defi nition 40 Stewardship Defi nition 40 3.4 Organizational Options for Business Metadata Stewardship 41 The Data Governance Council 42 Approaches to Business Metadata Stewardship 44 3.5 Metadata Life Cycle and Governance 45 3.6 Business Metadata Data Quality Considerations 48 3.7 Funding Business Metadata 50 The Centralized Implementation 51 The Localized Implementation 51 Advantages and Disadvantages of Funding Models 52 3.8 Summary 53 3.9 References 53 Complete Table of Contents xi Chapter 4 Business Metadata, Communication, and Search 55 4.1 Introduction 55 4.2 The Basic Problem in Information Management 56 Lack of Communication Clarity 56 The Importance of Defi nitions 59 4.3 The Defi nition 60 Components of a Defi nition 61 Defi nition Usage Notes 62 Miscellaneous Guidelines 64 4.4 Communications and Search 65 The High Cost of Not Finding Information 65 Quantifying Search Problems 67 4.5 Business Metadata and Search 70 Classifi cation 72 4.6 Summary 77 4.7 References 78 Chapter 5 Initiating a Business Metadata Project 79 5.1 Introduction 79 5.2 Why Consolidate or Integrate Metadata? 80 5.3 Metadata Project Planning and Scoping Considerations 82 Business Metadata Versus Technical Metadata 83 Diff erent Iterations of Development 84 Technology Tool: Local Metadata 85 5.4 Defi ning the Scope of the Metadata Repository 85 The Sources of Business and Technical Metadata 86 5.5 Summary 87 xii Complete Table of Contents Chapter 6 Business Metadata Capture 89 6.1 Introduction 89 6.2 Why Bother to Capture Business Metadata? 90 People Leaving 91 Other Business Motivations for Knowledge Capture 92 6.3 The Corporate Knowledge Base 93 The Corporate Glossary: Beginning of a Knowledge Base 93 What Is the Corporate Knowledge Base? 93 6.4 Principles of Knowledge Capture 95 What Is the Knowledge Capture Culture? 95 6.5 Socialization of Knowledge 96 6.6 Technology That Fosters Knowledge Socialization 98 Social Networking 99 Portals and Collaboration Servers 100 Wikis and Knowledge Socialization 103 Wikis and Governance 106 6.7 Balancing Out the Need for Governance with the Need for Contributions: “Governance Lite™ ” 107 How Governance Lite™ Works 107 The Search for Technology 109 Business Glossary Technology 111 6.8 Publicity 112 Visibility versus Usefulness 113 6.9 Knowledge Capture from Individuals: The Individual Documentation Problem 114 6.10 Web 2.0 and Knowledge Capture 115 Mashups 115 User-Defi ned Tags: Folksonomy 118 6.11 Summary 119 6.12 References 119 Complete Table of Contents xiii Chapter 7 Capturing Business Metadata from Existing Data 121 7.1 Introduction 121 7.2 Technical Sources of (Both Business and Technical) Metadata 122 Enterprise Resource Planning Applications 122 Reports 122 Spreadsheets 123 Documents 123 DBMS System Catalogs 124 Business Intelligence Tools 124 Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) 124 Legacy Systems and On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) Applications 125 The Data Warehouse 126 Summary of Metadata Sources 127