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Business Metadata Capturing Enterprise Knowledge

Business Metadata Capturing Enterprise Knowledge. DAMA Minnesota Chapter Jan. 16, 2008. Agenda. The need for Business Clarity What is Business Metadata? Business Motivation Business Metadata Harvesting Business Metadata Delivery to the Warehouse…and Beyond Infrastructure

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Business Metadata Capturing Enterprise Knowledge

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  1. Business MetadataCapturing Enterprise Knowledge DAMA Minnesota Chapter Jan. 16, 2008

  2. 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

  3. 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…

  4. Objective: Clear Understanding

  5. 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

  6. Data MisinterpretationHorror Stories • Bombing of Chinese Embassy in 1999 • CIA picked a target based upon an out-of-date map • Mars Lander • Misinterpretation of Unit of Measure (meters vs. feet) • Results of 2000 Presidential Election • Missing Metadata, Data presentation,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.

  7. BARRIER Context Context X=y+z A Customer is… Each person has his/her own context Each application has its own context Compounding The Problem… Assumptions Assumptions Definitions Definitions Terminology Terminology Business Rules Background Information Business Rules Background Information

  8. Section Two • What is Business Metadata?

  9. Business Technical The World of MD 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

  10. 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?

  11. 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

  12. Business Metadata Examples • Policies • Organization Hierarchy • Business Rules • Goals • Strategies • Tactics • Mission Statement • Rationale for Rules • Validation/Authority • Metrics and Analytics • Business documentation/reference

  13. Example: Definition of Customer “A Customer is a company or individual who has done business with us in the last 10 years.” “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 qualified buyer of products that we sell.”

  14. Section Three • Business Motivation

  15. 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

  16. “Graying of the Workforce” • Employee Turnover • Retirees Leaving • What happens to the Corporate Knowledge Base when people leave?

  17. Section Four • Business Metadata Harvesting; or, • Principles of Knowledge Extraction • How to Extract Content and Meaning from People

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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

  21. 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

  22. 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

  23. Section Five • Business Metadata Delivery

  24. 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?

  25. 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

  26. 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

  27. 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!

  28. BI Usage

  29. Mashup

  30. Mashups with Maps and Images

  31. Section Six • Infrastructure on a Shoestring Principles

  32. 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

  33. 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

  34. Shoestring Principle #2 • Implementation • Compromise

  35. 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

  36. 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

  37. Point of Origin Search for Term Retire Term or MD Identify New Term Maintain Term MD Governance Procedures Capture New Term MD Publish Term MD Review Term MD Approve New Term MD Business Term Lifecycle

  38. 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

  39. 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

  40. Section Seven • Turning Data into Business Metadata (Straw into Gold) • Why don’t business people understand us? • When does data become metadata?

  41. 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)

  42. 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

  43. Example Geocoded Addresses Business locations for mapping and proximity search (geocodes) 43% as of 5/1 60% as of 6/1 63% as of 7/1 Plan for 83% by 8/1 based on test results Final goal of 95% with sales Input by EOY 05’ Proximity Search and Map Accuracy at Rooftop at Zip No Map and Proximity Search Goal 100% advertisers At least Zip 8% as of 7/1: 55% as of 7/1:

  44. 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”

  45. Section Eight • Promoting Business Metadata: Public Relations

  46. 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!

  47. 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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