Business metadata : capturing enterprise knowledge

314 Pages·2008·6.086 MB·English

by  William H Inmon, Bonnie K O'Neil, Lowell Fryman

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 g rowing 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 p rovide 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 i n-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 c ontribution 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 (cid:127) BOSTON (cid:127) HEIDELBERG (cid:127) LONDON
NEW YORK (cid:127) OXFORD (cid:127) PARIS (cid:127) SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO (cid:127) SINGAPORE (cid:127) SYDNEY (cid:127) TOKYO
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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.
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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