What can data modelers learn from accountants? Accounting is a solidly established practice that the world cannot live without. One of the established guidelines for accountants is called GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the US), and there are similar international setups. You might guess these standards are about rules, but actually, accounting is much […]
The “Actionable” Metadata
Click to learn more about author Anand Govindarajan. During the days of building data warehouses and BI systems, all that was captured, as truly “metadata,” was the data about creation/access of the data structures for audits, data about the execution of data loads, and so on. Primarily, whatever supported the “operations” of the data warehouse. […]
How to Overcome the Challenges of Using a Data Vault
Click to learn more about author Eva Murray. What Are the Challenges? From flexibility to scalability and efficiency, using a data vault as your Data Modeling approach has many benefits. But simultaneously there are challenges that you need to be aware of. In this blog I’m going to walk you through the limitations and how […]
Jump Start Data Management Initiatives Through Improved Business Cases
Inch by inch, step by step, block by block – that’s how you build a business case for Data Management. What those inches, steps, and blocks will look like depends in large part on the organizational maturity of the business with regard to Data Management. In more mature businesses, it’s easier to make the case […]
Learning from Complex Data Modeling Practices
Click to learn more about author Thomas Frisendal. Now is a good point in time to look at best practices in database design for SQL databases. Are there things that could have been easier to do if the SQL designers had had absolute foresight? Of course, the answer is yes. But what is most important […]
What Is a Data Modeler?
A data modeler is a person who models data or documents software and business system designs. By doing this, a data modeler translates business needs into technical specifications. Developers and other IT members benefit from this when creating new data systems and troubleshooting and maintaining them. Data models promote consensus among developers, customers, and other […]
Enterprise Data Literacy: Understanding Data Management
To truly understand data-as-an-asset requires Enterprise Data Literacy, an organizational capability to take, analyze, and use data to remain secure and competitive. But achieving a high Enterprise Data Literacy can remain daunting when business and IT interact together. All too often in the middle of a project sprint, IT gets stuck on a minor problem, […]
Metadata Repository Essential Use Cases
“Even though we’re working with very sophisticated Data Science resources, we still hear over and over, ‘I don’t even know what data is available,’” said Susan Swanson, the Senior Manager of Data Modeling and Architecture at Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), an organization that offers regional health care coverage and services. Speaking at the DATAVERSITY® […]
Unify Data Governance with Data Architecture
Think of an organization trying to create a single understanding of the information of the organization and the instances of that data around its estate. Consider different groups of people contributing to and using this model from different perspectives and varying reasons. And view this in the context of Data Governance, Data Architecture or Business […]
To Grok or Not to Grok Data Models: A Summer Special
Click to learn more about author Thomas Frisendal. We need something light – yet still important – to ease our minds in the summertime. As a data modeler I have often experienced serious disconnects between not only business people and myself, but also between the real world and the vocabulary and definitions attributed to it. […]