Sunday, August 12, 2007

More on Meta data management

Meta data continues to fascinate me, and especially the way we continuously fail to get it to work. Intuitively I would say that it is easy to convince people about the value of meta data. Would you buy a jar or tin in the supermarket without a label? Would you take a medicine without a prescription?

That makes sense and of course we have meta data all over the place in the realm of IT. The only issue is that we do not manage it. So why is this? I may have a few explanations, and hopefully some further solution directions as well.

Explanations for failure:

1) when we try to set an overall meta data management strategy we try to analyse the full meta data problem and then we create usually very complex models. These complex models lead to complex system that nobody wants to maintain

2) when we deliver applications we focus on the delivery of the applications and not for the contribution to the greater good

3) there are usually no people with an overview beyond single projects

4) there are many competing standards, classification structures, etc. Who decides what's leading?

5) Meta data has no visible pay-back. So why invest?


So how to make it work?

1) Meta data only works when used in a business process where people have the interest in maintaining it. If meta data is collected and does not add any value after collecting it, than this meta data is useless. So only collect just enough, just in time. So only collect data definitions, if there is a guarantee that it will be used. That guarantee only exists when the usage is part of a common business process.

2) Distinguish between technical meta data and business meta data. Quite often people get confused about meta data, because they mix the two types. Technical meta data relates to things within systems (tables definitions, CRUD matrix, data mapping in an interface, etc), while business meta data is something understood by 'simple' business people. Things like Data Ownership, quality rules, positioning of the data in a business process. The two types of meta data require a complete different way of managing. Technical meta data is maintained within the application delivery process and portfolio management, while business meta data is usually a higher level issue (e.g. business process redesign). Business meta data is usually collected earlier in the process of bringing in new solutions than technical meta data.

3) Publish business meta data as part of something that is used by everybody; e.g. an Online help or a glossary. Earlier I advocated the use of wiki's for this, and I still think this is an excellent option. Don't publish technical meta data, but ensure it is part of the technical documentation (build in an architectural check in the project for assurance). It is best when technical meta data is part of the solution (e.g. part of the XML file, part of the ETL definitions, etc.)

4) Keep it simple

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