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This page provides some background on many of the challenges in orchestrating the MDM process when defining data domains in a Federated data management system. The process of moving an organization towards MDM is rigorous but, if done properly, it provides a single interface for synchronization, governance, data event notifications, and a golden-source-of-truth operational data store.
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- MDM is the process of describing and cataloging data inside of an organization and understanding which stakeholders value which sources of data.
- DI is the process of keeping data up to date between disparate systems. This ranges from annual CSV exports and imports between systems to real-time connectors between systems.
- Master Data is what is considered the source of truth for a given data domain and for a given department or group (zone) inside the larger organization. See Establish the Truth below.
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Out of analysis you discover the truth, i.e. which systems hold the truth values for a given domain. As you catalogue the data elements in a data dictionary it is important to note which systems hold the truth for the various stakeholders (zones). Knowing this reduces the amount of analysis required by creating a minimum-possible set of data elements for a given data domain. It's also important to understand that different zones can have a different view of which systems hold the truth values for a given domain; this too must be documented as data elements for a given data domain are catalogued. Allowing different zones to define where their source of truth originates is one of the distinguishing features of YOUnite.
Note: A zone refers to a collection of systems/applications owned by groups inside of an organization.
As the data governance staff works through the process of MDM, "truth" is often defined by the Data Governance Steward (DGS). But YOUnite provides the flexibility that allows the Zone Data Steward (ZDS) to define effective federated master data. In other words, "what may be truth for one zone or, the organization as a whole (what is defined as master data by the DGS) may not be master data for another."
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Example: Incoming freshmen at a college need to take an assessment test to determine which English and Math courses they should be placed into. The assessment holds raw test scores and the SIS system wants to combine the assessment scores with past college and high school course scores from the student’s transcripts and, from there, create its own score. In other words, the SIS wants the assessment tests but it does not store the assessment test scores - it only uses them as a function of creating a course placement ranking.
Adaptors are software located within a system that shares data through the YOUnite Data Hub and acts as the connection point between that system and the Data Hub. In the example above, adaptors are DI custom software that connects the application (e.g. SIS, Assessment, etc.) to the MDM system. They map data domains (and metadata) to operations in the application and follow protocols about data transformation and data governance i.e. who can see/update what. YOUnite provides fine-grained data governance controls between groups inside an organization.
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Note: If data sychronization is happening outside of MDM there is a good possibility that MDM won't detect it and the benefits of unified data governance and data event notifiations won't be realized. For information on Data Governance and developing an Array Advisory Practice to be communicated to adaptor developers for how to handel updated arrays, see Data Domains: Arrays.
If Data Elements Are Used by Only One System, Then Don't Normalize Them Unless They Are Used Inside Another Data Domain
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