Data Management

Ref:
Keith Gordon, Principles of Data Management -
Facilitating information sharing(2nd Edition), BCS,
2013.
Content

 Why data management?

 Types of data
 Data management responsabilities and
roles
Sharing data

 Information systems share data. Need

 Common definition of data
 Coordinated enterprise-wide control of
actual live data
 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system could replace company’s
information systems
 But normally it is yet another IS
Shared data

 Shared data between departments

 So data is a corporate resource which
should be
 Of high quality
 Readily available
Why Data Management? Designed
based on
different
fundamentals
 Information Systems (ISs) cannot be interfaced
 Difficult to join as not 2 IS designed together
 No data sharing
 Incompatible data definitions and disparate information
systems
 date: number - 30092015
 date: varchar(20) – September 30 2015
 Data: date – DDMMMYYYY 30Sep2015
 Communication breakdown
 Lack of data sharing within reasonable time
 Reinvention – same issues considered in different
information systems.
 Data requirements
 System requirements
 DB development
 Unnecessary data transcription
 Reduced competitive edge
 Staff discontent and frustration – inability to provide
the required service
Categorising data

 Groupings of data with similar

characteristics or features.
 Key to data management as some data
may be treated differently based on their
classification.
 A good understanding of the
relationship and dependency between
the different categories can help direct
data quality efforts.
Types of Data

 4 types
 Master
 Transactional
 Reference
 Meta

 Other classification
 Historical
 Real-time
Master data
 Describe the people, places & other elements
involved in an company’s business.
 Include people (e.g. customers, employees,
suppliers), places (e.g., offices, rigs, customers),
and things (e.g., accounts, products, assets)
 Used by multiple business process and IT
systems
 For system integration need:
 Standardisation of formats and
 Synchronisation of values
 Grouped into master records, which may
include associated reference data.
Transactional data

 Data about internal or external events

or transactions, e.g. sales orders,
invoices, purchase orders
 Typically grouped into transactional
records, which include associated
master and reference data.
Reference data
 Sets of values or classification schemas that are
referred to by
 systems, applications, data stores, processes, and reports
 transactional and master records,
 e.g. lists of valid values, code lists, status codes, state
abbreviations, product hierarchy.
 Standardised reference data are key to data
integration and interoperability and facilitate
the sharing and reporting of information.
 Used to distinguish one type of record from
another for classification and analysis.
 Can be defined
 Internally - to characterize or standardise own information.
 Externally (e.g. by government) to be used by multiple
organizations.
Metadata

 Data about data.

 describes, or characterises other data
 makes it easier to retrieve, interpret, or use information.

 Technical metadata such as field names, length,

type, lineage, and database table layouts
 Business metadata such as field definitions, report
names, headings in reports and on web pages,
application screen
 Audit trail metadata
 protected from alteration
 capture how, when, and by whom the data were created,
accessed, updated, or deleted.
 Used for security, compliance, or forensic purposes.
 E.g. timestamp, creator, create date, and update date.
Data Manager
Responsibilities
 Provide a corporate service in
which they support:
 the strategic definition, management and
use of business data
 The operational development of
computerised information systems.
Data manager responsibilities
 Awareness of data as a valuable business
resource. Applies to
 Structured data: e.g. data in a relational DB
 Unstructured data: e.g. documents containing
free text, images, etc
 Improve data quality
 Establish procedures for the maintenance of
data quality
 Facilitate information sharing
 Ensuring appropriate functional
departments (not IT or IS) are responsible
for the development of data definitions -
they understand the data
 Establish single source for reference data to
support all ISs
Data manager activities
Coordination

Information
Education
Service

Data
System
Management
Development
Policy and
Support
Strategy
Data
Data Definition:
Management • Models
Tools • Standards
• Ownership

Facilitation
Deliverables

System Data
Information
Development management
service
support tools
Set of
Quality repositories/
Knowledge
assured data dictionaries
base
models
• With
information
complying with
standards
Coordination Database
of data usage schema
… deliverables

Data
management
Education: Data definition
policy and
strategy

training Corporate
courses Policy data model
documents
Identified
Seminars
data owners

Plans Approved
Articles
data definition
Data management roles

 Part of information management

 3 data manager roles:
 Data administrator
 Database administrator
 Repository administrator
Data administrator
 Has corporate view of data
 Policy-making role which establishes
the rules and procedures for the
definition, quality control and
accessibility of corporate data
 May also participate in the development
of data definitions
 Conduct data quality audits
 Data cleansing
 Provides advice on data modelling
Database administrator
 Manages the software tool used to access
the actual physical data.
 Administer databases and database
management systems
 Monitor performance
 Restructuring
 Reordering
 Advice of physical DB design
 Archiving
 Backing up
 Security management
 Upgrades
Repository administration

 Manages SW which deals with meta-

information, i.e. information about
information. E.g. data dictionaries,
catalogues, etc.
 Definition
 Storage
 Manipulation
 Internal support of data management
 DB administration to support data
administration
Information Management

 Other information management roles

NOT part of data management
 Process management
 System management
 Business information support.
 Information Management

Information
management

Business
Data Process System
information
management management management
support

Data Database Repository

administration administration administration
Conclusion
 Data management – essential
 Types of data:
 Master
 Transactional
 Reference
 Metadata
 Data manager activities:
 Coordination
 Facilitation
 Data management roles: data,
database and repository administration.