Business Metadata Capturing Enterprise Knowledge DAMA Minnesota Chapter Jan. 16, 2008 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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… innovative, strong, loyal.
Objective: Clear Understanding innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Data Misinterpretation Horror Stories • Bombing of Chinese Embassy in 1999 – CIA picked a target based upon an out-of-date map • Mars Lander – Misinterpretation of Unit of Measure (meters vs. feet) • Results of 2000 Presidential Election – Missing Metadata, Data presentation,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. innovative, strong, loyal.
Compounding The Problem… BARRIER Context A Customer is… Each person has his/her own context Context X=y+z Each application has its own context innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Two • What is Business Metadata? innovative, strong, loyal.
Technical Metadata • Technical metadata has been well known for decades • Technical metadata includes – Database and table name – Column name Business – Data type and length Technical – ETL transformations The World of MD – Computations and aggregations innovative, strong, loyal.
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? innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Business Metadata Examples • • • Policies Organization Hierarchy Business Rules Goals Strategies Tactics Mission Statement Rationale for Rules Validation/Authority Metrics and Analytics Business documentation/reference innovative, strong, loyal.
Example: Definition of Customer “A Customer is someone who has had their credit approved. ” “A Customer is someone who has the potential to buy from us. ” “A Customer is a company or individual who has done business with us in the last 10 years. ” “A Customer is a qualified buyer of products that we sell. ” innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Three • Business Motivation innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
“Graying of the Workforce” • Employee Turnover • Retirees Leaving • What happens to the Corporate Knowledge Base when people leave? innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Four • Business Metadata Harvesting; or, • Principles of Knowledge Extraction – How to Extract Content and Meaning from People innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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: My. Space or Linked-in innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Five • Business Metadata Delivery innovative, strong, loyal.
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? innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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! innovative, strong, loyal.
BI Usage innovative, strong, loyal.
Mashup innovative, strong, loyal.
Mashups with Maps and Images innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Six • Infrastructure on a Shoestring Principles innovative, strong, loyal.
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 10 th 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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Shoestring Principle #2 • Implementation – Compromise innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Business Term Lifecycle Point of Origin Retire Term or MD Maintain Term MD Search for Term Identify New Term Governance Procedures Publish Term MD Approve New Term MD Capture New Term MD Review Term MD innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Seven • Turning Data into Business Metadata (Straw into Gold) – Why don’t business people understand us? – When does data become metadata? innovative, strong, loyal.
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) innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Example Geocoded Addresses Business locations for mapping and proximity search (geocodes) 43% as of 5/1 60% as 63% as of of 6/1 7/1 Proximity Search and Map Accuracy at Rooftop at Zip 55% as of 7/1: Plan for 83% Final goal of by 8/1 based 95% with sales on test results Input by EOY 05’ No Map and Proximity Search 8% as of 7/1: Goal 100% advertisers At least Zip innovative, strong, loyal.
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” innovative, strong, loyal.
Section Eight • Promoting Business Metadata: Public Relations innovative, strong, loyal.
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! innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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Summary • Putting it all together innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
High Level Data Model innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Phase 1: Vision, Roadmap, Funding Document 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 innovative, strong, loyal.
Phase 2: Establish Terms Governance Establish 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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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 innovative, strong, loyal.
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-eyenetwork. com/channels/index. php? filter_channel=1384 innovative, strong, loyal.
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