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innovative, strong, loyal.
Business MetadataCapturing Enterprise Knowledge
DAMA
Minnesota Chapter
Jan. 16, 2008
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Agenda• The need for Business Clarity• What is Business Metadata? • Business Motivation• Business Metadata Harvesting • Business Metadata Delivery to the Warehouse…and
Beyond• Infrastructure• Turning Data into Business Metadata (Straw into Gold)• Promoting Business Metadata: Using Public Relations• Summary: Putting it All Together
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We are Not Precise Communicators!• Universal problem: misunderstanding!• Sloppy word usage
– We don’t define our terminology– Everybody thinks they understand same terminology– Nuances are rampant but not explicit– Humans don’t communicate well– Little or no documentation– People think they know what the terms mean, but…
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Terminology Confusion• How does it happen?
– Acronyms– Different lines of business have their own “dialect”– Different geographical regions– Merger and Acquisitions– Slang– Different individual people
• Meaning is buried within the application processes
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Data MisinterpretationHorror Stories
• Bombing of Chinese Embassy in 1999– CIA picked a target based upon an out-of-date map
• Mars Lander– Misinterpretation of Unit of Measure (meters vs. feet)
• Results of 2000 Presidential Election– Missing Metadata, Data presentation, validation, timeliness
of registration, etc.
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Compounding The Problem…
Context
Each application has its own context
BARRIER
Each person has his/her own context
ContextA Customer
is…
X=y+z
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Technical Metadata• Technical metadata has been well known for decades• Technical metadata includes
– Database and table name– Column name– Data type and length– ETL transformations– Computations and aggregations
Business
Technical
The World of MD
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Technical Metadata Does Not…• Add business meaning or context• Supply business specifics• Explain how or why the data is useful to the
business• In Short, business Metadata adds business
context to the data• Business metadata is an untapped resource• So what is new?
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Business Metadata
• Business Metadata refers to facts about the business that are important but often not stored formally in Information Systems, suitable for consumption by business people
Business Metadata is…• Contextual information that business users access
directly • Is expressed in a language business people can
understand
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Business Metadata Examples• Policies• Organization Hierarchy• Business Rules• Goals• Strategies• Tactics• Mission Statement• Rationale for Rules• Validation/Authority• Metrics and Analytics• Business documentation/reference
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Example: Definition of Customer
“A Customer is someonewho has had theircredit approved.”
“A Customer is a qualifiedbuyer of products that we
sell.”
“A Customer is someonewho has the potential to
buy from us.”
“A Customer is a companyor individual who hasdone business with usin the last 10 years.”
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What are Some Motivators?• Business Performance Management and KPIs• Legal pressures and compliance• Governance issues• Merger and Acquisitions• Graying of the workforce• Means for IT and Business to be engaged• Data quality ”issues” caused by various business
painful events– Law suit– Business goal that cannot be met (like data
sharing)– Data warehouse, data migration, CDI/MDM– SOA/ Web services implementation
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“Graying of the Workforce”• Employee Turnover• Retirees Leaving
• What happens to the Corporate Knowledge Base when people leave?
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Section Four
• Business Metadata Harvesting; or,• Principles of Knowledge Extraction
– How to Extract Content and Meaning from People
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Knowledge Capture Principles• Knowledge capture must be easy• Knowledge capture must fit into the daily routine of
workers• Workers must be able to catch the vision/ motivation
behind the knowledge capture work– It’s helpful if they perceive they will benefit themselves
directly
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Knowledge Capture• Some tacit knowledge can be captured by socialization
– This is where Knowledge Management has focused its efforts– Usually tacit knowledge capture involves people working
together face-to-face
• Today, many technology advancements have provided new ways to socialize knowledge– The Internet– Collaboration mechanisms– Wikis – Social Networking: MySpace or Linked-in
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Knowledge Capture vs. Traditional Collaboration
• Collaboration (Collab) has been around for a while– Portals– Project and Team Collabs– Threaded discussions– Email archives
• Collab offers knowledge capture• Threaded discussions
– Each individual’s contribution is stored separately– No sense of multiple people updating a single
entity
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Ideas for You to Try• Find the social networking tool that fits your culture best• Things to consider:
– Open Source– Portal– Packaged software
• Options– Blogs– Wikis– Collaboration suite– Portal
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Socialization of Knowledge• What is the role of experts?
– “Whatever Joe (or my Mom or the Pope or CNN or Fox News) says, I believe”
• Is Wikipedia more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica?– However, notice how many articles appearing in Wikipedia
quote experts, often as the originator of the technology or term
• Example: Michael Polanyi created the term Tacit Knowledge
• ‘The ‘Wisdom of Crowds” by Surowiecki seems to suggest that a crowd (or group) is usually more accurate than an expert alone
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Avoid the Roach Motel!
• Don’t want to go to all the trouble getting data in if you can’t report on it easily!
• Is it “open”? Can any reporting tool get data out of it?
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The Trouble with Wikis• Many wikis are roach motels
– Data goes in really nicely– Can’t repurpose it well
• Repurpose means being able to take the data out of its current format and reuse it somewhere else
• Example:– Create a dictionary using a wiki, then take that
same data and load it into a Business Intelligence (BI) tool’s metadata repository to be displayed when analyzing BI data
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Business Metadata Delivery• You want to have business metadata available
ubiquitously– Many different places– Portal– Within applications– As hover text– As help– Right mouse click
• Centrally located– But can be delivered to other repositories if
needed
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Within BI• Some BI tools enable definitions or other descriptive
text to be shown as hover text in navigation list of data elements– But in order to do so, this text must be loaded into
the tool’s own proprietary metadata repository– This requires ETL– You must move the definition text to the tool’s
repository– But you must make sure the data element
matches up properly with the term being defined– Otherwise, the definition is not properly defining
the data element!
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EM R
Businessm etadata
D ate
H ea t
Yield
P rod uc t
1 - an analyst is looking at a screen or a report
D ate
H ea t
Yield
P rod uc t
2 - the analyst has a question about som e item found on the screen. The analyst h igh lights the item
D ate
H ea t
Yield
P rod uc t
Inm on D ata S ys tem s
Pus h bu ttonto en te r
1 - aka2 - descrip tion3 - defin ition4 - form ula5 - ownership6 - where else used7 - data model8 - report9 - technology env10 - re la tionship
3 - IDS then asks the analyst w hat in form ation is desired
D ate
H ea t
Yield
P rod uc t
Inm on D ata S ys tem s
Pus h bu ttonto en te r
4 - IDS then returns the in form ation about the item
D ate
H ea t
Yield
P rod uc t
5 - IDS returns the analyst to the orig ina l screen
Indirect usage of busniessm etadata
F ig 31
BI Usage
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Shoestring Principle # 1• Bonnie’s Law:
– “Use Whatever is Lying Around”• You can obviously save money if you don’t have to
buy anything special• Lowell’s 10th Law:
– “Start Simple, Start Small”• You will be surprised at what you find when you look
for “whatever is lying around”– Already purchased software– Software/hardware scrapped from a failed project– Under-utilized systems
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Case Study
• Plumtree Portal– Studio: No custom development– Enabled dev and testing to be easier, quicker– Didn’t have to have separate groups do this
• However, it didn’t do everything we wanted– No programming required– BUT because of this, not very flexible
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Trade-offs
• Functionality vs. Budget!– You get what you pay for
• Compromise– Know in advance that you won’t get everything
you want because you are doing it on limited funds
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Case Study• Desired Functionality:
– We wanted wiki-like functionality• Everyone can edit anyone else’s entry
– But we wanted to enable Governance Lite• Allow only the Terms Team to update the Status Field
– Wanted to preserve history so the Terms Team can:
• See both pre-edited content as well as the edit made• See who updated the entry • See what the original entry was• Compare original with the update
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Business Term Lifecycle
Search for Term
ReviewTerm MD
Retire Term or MD
Maintain Term
MD
Publish Term MD
Approve New Term
MD
Governance
Procedures
Capture
New TermMD
Identify New Term
Point of Origin
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Biggest Challenge: Tracking History
• No history meant we could not establish our governance policy as desired
• It could be done using the full Plumtree Portal Product, But:– Added cost of development (Studio, development
virtually free)– Added time for development, testing and
deployment
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Compromise• When someone wants to edit an existing term, they
have to create a new dictionary entry– This allowed both the terms team and users to
track the evolution of a term• Different than wiki because it will then have multiple
entries for the same term– Wiki only has one entry for the same term but can
be edited multiple times
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Section Seven• Turning Data into Business Metadata (Straw into
Gold)– Why don’t business people understand us?– When does data become metadata?
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Why is Technical Metadata “Greek”
• The context of Technical MD is difficult to understand for the Business person.
• Don’t expect the business person to understand – Data Type – VChar– Protocol – TCP-IP
– Indexing – Bitmap • Technical terminology is intended to be “technical”• Some business metadata can be “Greek” to the
technical staff as well• Recognize that metadata only have value when the
audience understands the context (the language)
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When does Data become Business Metadata
• When the Business considers data in the context of a business program or initiative
• Metrics, KPIs, and Analytics can be Business Metadata
• Consider the Business initiative to improve Customer Address quality– The metric for “Percentage of CASS Certified Addresses” is
Business metadata – The metric provides context as to the progress and success
of the business program
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Example
Business locations for mapping and proximity search (geocodes)
43% as of 43% as of 5/15/1
60% as 60% as of 6/1of 6/1
Plan for 83% Plan for 83% by 8/1 based by 8/1 based on test resultson test results
Final goal ofFinal goal of95% with sales 95% with sales Input by EOY Input by EOY 05’05’
Goal 100% advertisersGoal 100% advertisersAt least ZipAt least Zip
63% as of 63% as of 7/1 7/1
at Rooftop at Zip
Proximity Search and Map AccuracyProximity Search and Map Accuracy
No Map and Proximity SearchNo Map and Proximity Search
55% as of 55% as of 7/1:7/1:
8% as of 8% as of 7/1:7/1:
Geocoded AddressesGeocoded Addresses
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Increasing Usefulness• Hook it to
– Company Home Page or on the “tool bar”– The Data Warehouse– Enterprise Applications
• “Change the Culture”– Increase awareness– Delivery into Business Practices is key– Get people to use it in their everyday life– Example: The Team Room software
• Make it pervasive– “Look it up in the Dictionary”
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PR
• Business Metadata is supposed to be helpful to Businesspeople directly
• You will have to let the people know that business metadata is out there so they can use it
• You will also need to figure out a way to get people to add to the knowledge base
• Two-fold Approach:– Advertising, Awareness– Incentives!
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Include the Publicity• Our client had a PR group; we engaged them to help
us• We had a contest:
– Entering a term gave you a chance to win one of two $100 gift certificates of brand merchandise
• We put posters up in each site• “In the Know” online webzine had a front page article• The article appeared on our portal the first time we
launched• Put the “Terms Dictionary” portlet on the internal
Home Page
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The need for Business Clarity• People are by nature lousy at documenting things
– Metadata efforts need to be aimed at encouraging people to document their work
• We need to create an easy way that people can document a discovery made when it happens
• Need to consider how the knowledge will be used throughout the organization– “Change the Culture”
• Bad decisions will be made because the context of the data is not understood
• Compliance efforts are driving the need
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What is Business Metadata• Metadata is all about context and meaning
– Technical metadata adds context– Business metadata adds the meaning
• Business metadata can include– Business Policies and Procedures– Business Rules– Business Strategy, Goals, Mission statements– Metrics and Analytics– Knowledge and Tacit Management
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Business Motivation
• Drivers are often– Compliance and Regulations – CDI/MDM– Graying of the workforce– Downsizing and turnover– Merger and Acquisitions– Data Quality New IT systems or enterprise
integration– Metrics and Analytics
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Business Metadata Harvesting• Knowledge capture principles
– Must be easy and fit into the daily routine– People must gain individual value from their efforts
• Some tacit knowledge can be captured by socialization
• Social networking technologies support the capture principles
• Collaboration technologies also support knowledge capture
• Find the collaboration/networking tools that best fits the culture of your organization
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Business Metadata Delivery• Business metadata delivery is equally as important as
knowledge capture… No Roach Motels• Effective Search capabilities and training are critical • Consider putting the Business MD Search on the
company home page and may other places • Careful consideration must be given to how Business
MD will be integrated into the reporting capabilities • A combination of technologies (mashup) may be an
effective delivery mechanism in your culture
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Business Metadata Infrastructure
• Don’t ignore the need for a data model• Use the technology that is available if it can work• Use the technology that requires less technical
resources, they are generally less complex for business usage
• Be prepared to compromise “wants vs. needs”• Governance must be driven by the Business
individuals• Enable Business “ownership” for the Business MD
application
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Turning Data into Business MD
• Data that provides the context for the status or success of a Business initiative
• Data must be put in the context of the initiative• Identify important business initiatives• Identify the metrics, KPIs, and analytics that will
provide the context of the initiative• Deliver in the Business metadata application
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Promoting Business Metadata
• People have to be aware of the tools available to them, Business MD is one
• Promote an internal “contest” to have people use and add to the knowledge base
• Advertise for awareness and provide incentives• Engage your PR staff for the promotional efforts• Engage the Training staff to add the Business MD
application to the New Employee Orientation
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High Level Data Model
Term Authority
Authority Type
Business Term
Governance Status
Business Term Type
Business Term Definition
Related Business Term
Related Term Type
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Steps to Success
• What are the implementation steps– Phase 1: Define Vision, Roadmap and Funding– Phase 2: Establish Governance Organization– Phase 3: Implementation of the Terms Dictionary
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Phase 1: Vision, Roadmap, FundingDocument current capabilities, challenges, infrastructure, dictionaries,
processes, and company culture– Define the Vision for the future – Develop the Business Case– Define the life-cycle and use cases– Define technology infrastructure– Identify Governance options– Develop an implementation plan– Develop executive presentations to gain consensus and funding
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Phase 2: Establish Terms GovernanceEstablish the Governance organization, processes,
practices, and technology– Establish the Terms Governance organization– Establish the life-cycle processes and usage– Establish the Governance standards and best
practices– Establish the Dictionary technology – Conduct a proof-of-concept– Develop the promotion and roll-out strategy– Refine the implementation plan
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Phase 3: Implement
• Implement the Terms Dictionary governance and application– Design and develop of the application– Integrate existing terms dictionaries– Test the Governance processes and application– Roll-out the application
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Summary• Metadata is all about context and meaning
– Technical metadata adds technical context– Business metadata adds the meaning
• Business metadata can include– Business Policies and Procedures– Business Rules– Business Strategy, Goals, Mission statements– Metrics and Analytics– Business and technical terms
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Summary
• The Business Terms Dictionary provides a solid foundation as a first project– Phase 1: Define Vision, Roadmap and Funding– Phase 2: Establish Governance Organization– Phase 3: Implementation of the Terms Dictionary
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Q & A• For additional information please contact us at
– moreinfo@vipconsulting.com– www.vipconsulting.com
• Contact Us– lfryman@vipconsulting.com
• Business Metadata: Capturing Enterprise Knowledge• Metadata channel -
http://www.b-eye-network.com/channels/index.php?filter_channel=1384
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