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Business Metadata: Capturing Enterprise Knowledge
People have a hard time communicating, and also have a hard time finding business knowledge in the environment. With the sophistication of search technologies like Google, business people expect to be able to get their questions answered about the business just like you can do an internet search. The truth is, knowledge management is primitive today,
and it is due to the fact that we have poor business metadata management.
This book is about all the groundwork necessary for IT to really support the business properly. By providing not just data, but the context behind the data. For the IT professional, it will be tactically practical--very "how to" and a detailed approach to implementing best practices supporting knowledge management. And for the the IT or other manager who needs a guide for creating and justifying projects, it will help provide a strategic map.
* First book that helps businesses capture corporate (human) knowledge and unstructured data, and offer solutions for codifying it for use in IT and management.
* Written by Bill Inmon, one of the fathers of the data warehouse and well-known author, and filled with war stories, examples, and cases from current projects.
* Very practical, includes a complete metadata acquisition methodology and project plan to guide readers every step of the way.
* Includes sample unstructured metadata for use in self-testing and developing skills.
CONTENTS:
Business Metadata The Quest for Business Understanding Section I: Rationale and Planning 1. What is Business Metadata a. What is Metadata? i. A brief history of metadata ii. Types of Metadata 1. Technical 2. Business 3. Structured versus Unstructured MD b. What is Business MD? i. Some examples and usage c. When does data become MD? d. Who are the users of business metadata? e. A grid of metadata f. Business metadata and reference files 2. The Value and Benefits of Business Metadata a. Metadata Provides Context: i. Example: the number ?42? ii. The road sign analogy iii. The library card catalog analogy b. Business Metadata Provides Historical Perspective c. Contextual Benefits in Analytical Processing i. Simple Reports ii. Drill Downs iii. Exception Reporting iv. Heuristic Analysis v. KPI Analysis vi. Multivariate Analysis vii. Pattern Analysis viii. Spreadsheets ix. Screens d. Hidden MD e. The Information Supply Chain i. The Business Feedback Loop 3. Who is responsible for Business Metadata? a. Who Has the Most to Gain from Business Metadata? b. Stewardship versus Ownership c. Business versus Technical Ownership d. Is Stewardship of Business Metadata any different? i. Data Stewardship ii. Metadata Stewardship iii. Business Metadata Stewardship e. Stewardship Challenges f. Why should MD be funded? (Bill) i. How and why should business metadata be funded 1. The business case for business metadata ii. The search process - from a visceral standpoint 1. Follow up from Subsequent Chapter 2. The end user buying departmental tools 3. The technician buying a repository iii. Blending everything together - a combined approach iv. Life without an organized approach to business metadata v. Funding Models 1. Should MD be funded by ROI? 2. What are the funding options (LOB or centralized IT, usage or overhead)? vi. Funding a Corporate Knowledge Base 4. Business Metadata, Communication and Search (BKO) a. The need for better communication b. Faulty communication causes bad business practices c. Much time is lost in the organization due to not being able to find things i. Losing Your Car Keys Analogy d. The need for structured definitions e. The Role of Taxonomies 5. Section II: How-To 6. How do you initiate a MD project? a. What are the options? b. Planning Guidelines i. Examples in MSProject c. Defining the Business Metadata Strategy and Goals i. Strategy & Goals: Business Focus ii. Strategy & Goals: Technical Focus d. Complete enterprise strategy & goals e. Constructing a Strategic Plan f. Examples in MSWord 7. Technology Infrastructure for Metadata a. MD Modeling and Design (CWM and OMG) i. Special Challenges of Business Metadata b. What does business metadata integration entail? i. Similarity to a data warehouse c. Should be treated like a data warehouse project d. Buy versus Build Alternatives e. Centralized MD Implementation i. Federated ii. Repository f. Distributed MD Implementation g. Hybrid MD Implementation h. ETL for business metadata i. Semantic integration 8. Business Metadata Capture a. Business MD scope i. Vulcan mind meld ii. Intro to Unstructured MD iii. Business Rules iv. Definitions v. Domains b. Business Metadata Capture from Technical MD i. Enterprise Model layer ii. Conceptual Model layer iii. Logical Model layer iv. Physical Model layer c. Special Challenges of Business Metadata i. Capturing knowledge from Business People d. Capturing knowledge from Individuals e. Capturing knowledge from Groups i. The Socialization Factor ii. Wikis and Collabs f. PR: Encouraging and Incentivizing g. Special Stewardship Approaches i. Proactive vs. Reactive ii. ?Governance Lite? 8.5 Business Metadata Capture from Existing Data 8.5.1 Technical Sources of MD 8.5.1.1 ERP 8.5.1.2 Reports 8.5.1.3 Spreadsheets 8.5.1.4 Documents 8.5.1.5 DBMS system catalogs 8.5.1.6 OLAP 8.5.1.7 ETL 8.5.1.8 Legacy System 8.5.1.9 Data Warehouse 8.5.2 Editing the metadata as it passes into the metadata repository 8.5.2.1 Automation of the editing 8.5.3 Granularizing metadata 8.5.4 Expanding definitions & descriptions 8.5.5 Synonym resolution 8.5.6 Homonym Resolution 8.5.7 Manual Metadata editing 8.5.8 Turning Technical MD into Business MD 9. MD Data Delivery a. Avoid Roach Motel b. Who are users? How do you deliver it? c. Active vs. Passive Delivery d. MD & DW e. MD & Marts f. MD & Operational Systems g. Example: Corporate Glossary Section III: Special Categories of Business MD 9.5 Data Quality a. Why is data quality business metadata? b. Purpose of Data Quality c. Using a Data Quality Methodology d. Expressing data quality into the language of the business 10. Semantics & Ontologies a. Semantics: The study of meaning b. Semantic frameworks i. Controlled Vocabulary ii. Taxonomy iii. Ontology iv. Chart showing Semantic Richness c. Semantics and Business Metadata d. Semantics and Technology i. The Semantic Web ii. SOA iii. Other tools iv. Standards: OWL etc e. Making semantics practical f. Two different uses i. Glossaries/CV ii. Search g. Simple implementations 11. Unstructured MD a. Characteristics of Unstructured business metadata b. Where unstructured business metadata resides i. Reports ii. Spreadsheets iii. Text files iv. email c. Examples of unstructured business metadata d. Plucking business metadata out i. An example of finding business metadata in unstructured data e. Relationships among unstructured business metadata objects i. Familial ii. Hierarchy f. Using Unstructured business metadata i. Business metadata and understanding unstructured documents ii. Theming documents using business metadata g. Industrial recognized lists as a basis for understanding documents h. Linguistics i. Marrying structured & unstructured data 12. Business Rules a. Why business rules are a type of business metadata b. Business rules and their role in managing the business c. Where do you find business rules? d. Purpose for managing them as metadata e. Business Rules and Rule Engine technology f. Business Rules and the Repository 13. Metadata & Compliance a. Compliance - the issues b. Financial compliance c. Communications compliance d. Types of compliance i. Sarbanes Oxley ii. Basel II iii. HIPAA iv. Patriot Act e. How do you use MD to find compliance data? f. Using business metadata i. As a screen?Finding blather ii. To classify transactions iii. As a means to determine criticality g. Creating the historical record i. Preparing for the audit using business metadata h. An example of business metadata during the compliance process i. Document Retention and Compliance i. Document Retention issues ii. Maintenance of email, iii. Email as a knowledge base & the problems it creates 14. Knowledge Management and Business Metadata a. Intersection of Business Metadata and Knowledge Management b. Knowledge Management in Practice i. Knowledge Capture ii. Knowledge Dissemination c. Explicit and Tacit Knowledge d. Building Intellectual capital and the Corporate Knowledgebase e. Social Issues i. Impact of collaboration on Knowledge ii. Graying of the Workforce Section IV: Putting it All Together 15. Summary a. Business Metadata is important b. Business Metadata has been ignored in general discussions of metadata c. Lessons learned in the field d. /What does the future hold? e. Trends f. Resources Appendix: A: MD Repository Buy Methodology (Sample project plan) B: MD Repository Build Methodology (Sample project plan) C: glossary of terms (the metadata)
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