Metadata

[admin]

Is “data about data.” Business metadata is capturing details about an organisation out of the boundaries of IT systems. Often by adding metadata to data you create information.

Metadata is collected throughout the life of data (called ‘data lineage’ or pedigree) so that you understand about the history of what has happened to the data over time and as it is transformed and used in the organisation:

See attachment 1.

With metadata, an organisation recognises that it can:

• Build confidence in the data that drives the business by tracking data lineage, managing data governance, and ensuring data validation.
• Improve business users’ understanding of interrelated data across systems (using a data dictionary)
• Improve data visibility, quality, and financial reporting
• Simplify change management and impact analysis for IT (helping them to do a better job for the business)
• Slash the time and expense of manual data review and reconciliation.

Examples of the Business Metadata include:

• Business Model
  • Business data models
  • Business Analysis models (for business modeling)
  • Business Hierarchies (from a business analyst point of view)
  • Business dimensions and attributes with business descriptions
• Data Management
  • Data Groups
  • Data Custodians owning the data
  • Data stewards responsible for the health of the data.
• Data quality
  • Data quality business rules
  • Data Quality statistics
• Data Analysis and Reporting
  • Business Reports Definition
  • Data Analysis definition in the reports (what analysis is done in the reports, why and how it is done)
  • Reports structure and layout
• Performance Management
  • Measures and key performance metrics
  • Performance dashboards and scorecards
• Documents
  • Rules
  • Policies
  • Standard Operating procedures
  • Legal Contracts
• Business rules and processes
  • Business Processes
  • Business Rules

Refer also to Data