business glossary · 2020. 12. 8. · business glossary business qualification –adding business...
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Business Glossary Methods and Best Practices
November 11, 2020
Karen Sheridan, Vice President of FinanceEmail: [email protected]
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Facilitator
New England Data Management Community
Business GlossaryMethods and Best PracticesDid you ever get handed an excel spreadsheet containing a list of data elements and asked to name and define the data? Did you ask someone for guidance on where to start and if there was there a process and standards that should be followed? Have you asked why am I doing this? What is the value?
This discussion is based on the importance of the business glossary and how to develop a consistent method of definition in order to provide integrity of content. These ideas, theories, and standards aid in growing a common vocabulary to maximize the value of the data within your organization. The standards support managing the business glossary from an enterprise perspective and building trust for the users of a centralized repository.
CONTACT INFO:Karen SheridanVP of Finance, DAMA New EnglandEMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: 860-874-8644
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karensheridan/
AGENDA• Metadata Management
• Goals
• Business Glossary• Business Glossary vs. Data Dictionary
• Definition Process• Identify the need to define new• Obstacles to a good business Glossary• Anatomy of a Business Term• Class words• Business Terms and Definition• Qualification• Extracting Business Concepts from the definition• Value of Business Concepts
New England Data Management Community
Metadata Management
New England Data Management Community
Planning, implementation and control activities to enable access to high quality, integrated metadata.
Metadata includes:Information about technical and business processesData rules and constraints, Logical and physical data structures.
It describes the data itself, the concepts the data represents, and the connections between the data and concepts.
Goals
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AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Automation
Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Set expectations for DBA
Provide organizational understanding of business terms and usage
Collect and integrate metadata from diverse sources.
Provide a standard way to access metadata.
Ensure metadata quality and security.
Business Glossary
New England Data Management Community
AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals
Automation
Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Set expectations for DBA
A layer between the user and the extensive volume of data collected.
Organizing the business representation of data that helps end users access data using a controlled vocabulary.
Its goal is to allow business users to navigate, find and understand data.
Organizations are dynamic and under constant change. The semantic layer needs to be flexible allowing for growth and changes in order to adapt to changes in the business landscape.
Business Glossary vs Data Dictionary
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Goals
Automation
Reuse
Set expectations for DBA
A business glossary provides business context to the data dictionary.
The difference is in what they are and how they are used
Business GlossaryRoles: Business Data Stewards, Business Owners, Business SME• Sits in the Business, uses terms the business understands• Day to day governance activities - collaboration• Ensure data if fit for purpose providing guidance and business resources
to support the investigation and remediation of data quality issues. • Understands the business process that creates the data• Business Concepts, Business Terms, Business Rules, Abbreviations
Data DictionaryRoles: Technical Data Stewards, Asset Custodians, DBA, Developers• Sits in Technology, uses terms technical teams understands• Supports the maintenance and distribution of data• Documentation of Technical Metadata maintaining the integrity of the data
through its lifecycle, and supporting Data issue remediation• Applications, Databases, Schemas, Tables, Views, Columns, Files, Fields
Employee Telephone NumberThe telephone number of an Employee as recorded in their
personnel record.
Employee: A person who is hired full or part time for a wage, salary, fee to perform work. It does not include contractors.
Telephone Number: a set of figures identifying the telephone of a particular subscriber, and used in making connections to that telephone.
tele_numTelephone Number14 byte alpha numeric
When I say Employee
Telephone Number I mean …
When I codify tele_number it
must conform to…
Definition Process
New England Data Management Community
AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals
Automation
Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Set expectations for DBA
Understand the Data
Understand the
Business Process
Sources
Granularity
Valid Values
Descriptions of
Values
• Identify the need to define new - most important step
• Identify the Class Word
• Standards for Business Term Definition
• Standards for Business Concept Definition
• Standards for Business Term Names
• Document Valid Values
Identify the need to define new
New England Data Management Community
AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Set expectations for DBAThe definition
process must be tool agnostic
Where do I start?
First check the metadata repository to see if the term or supporting business concepts have already been defined
Obstacles to a good business glossary
New England Data Management Community
AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Set expectations for DBA
Non Identical Duplicates
The instance that the same data element has been defined more than once with different names/definitions in the metadata repository
Identical Non Duplicates
The instance when two or more data elements have been defined with the same name/definition in the repository but really mean different things
Anatomy of a Business Term
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AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Employee Telephone Number
The telephone number of an Employee as recorded in their personnel record.
Employee: A person who is hired full or part time for a wage, salary, fee to perform work. It does not include contractors.
Telephone Number: a set of figures identifying the telephone of a particular subscriber, and used in making connections to that telephone.
Business TermDefinition
Business ConceptClass Word
Class Words
New England Data Management Community
AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals Reuse
Best Practices
Connect Standard with Requirements
Employee Telephone Number
The telephone number of an Employee as recorded in their personnel record.
Class Word
Examples:Number
DescriptionCode
AmountAddress
IdentifierCountName
• Categorizes and labels by data type for business user
• Documents what form the information is conveyed by data representation
• Determined by data representation and valid values
• Enterprise certification of Class words is done with input from Modelers | Architects. If you find a need for a new Class Word, contact the Data Governance Office (DGO).
• Definition should begin with reference to the class word which drives the sentence structure
Business Term and Definition
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AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals Reuse
Best Practices
Employee Telephone Number
The telephone number of an Employee as recorded in their personnel record.
Business TermAnd Definition
• Definitions are written from the business perspective.
• Follow Modern Language Association (MLA) standards, fully written out, upper and lower case, proper punctuation, English language.
• Acronyms should be fully spelled out, with the abbreviation following in parenthesis. Example: Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)
• Leverage predefined, or define new Business Concepts in the definition.
• Begin the definition with reference to the class word.
• Always include the class word in the definition to articulate data type.
• The selection of class word drives the sentence structure.
• Avoid reference to how the data is used
• May only have one definition.
• Multi-Use fields should be prevented.
• Define related data elements using similar sentence structure.
• Do not over qualify.
• Do not use ambiguous terms or terms that go out of date– “Sometimes”, “Currently” , “May”.
• When possible, avoid synonyms.
Qualification
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AutomationReuse
Best practicesConnect standards with
requirementsSet expectations for DBA
Goals Reuse
Best Practices
To qualify or not to qualify, that is the question?Do I need to define a
business concept
Qualify – To reduce from a general to a particular or restricted form
Business GlossaryBusiness Qualification – Adding business concepts to a business term definition that restricts the reusability of the term.
Data DictionaryTechnical Qualification – Adding attribution to data assets that distinguish how the data was physically implemented in one instance
Extracting Business Concepts from the Definition
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Goals Reuse
Best Practices
The definition must be completed before the business concepts are extracted and defined.
Always check the repository to ensure a business concept with the same meaning has not already been defined.
Using the business concept in the definition is how we begin to control the enterprise vocabulary and improve communication across lines of business and functional areas.
Employee Telephone NumberEmployee: A person who is hired full or part time for a wage, salary, fee to perform work. It does not include contractors.
Telephone Number: a set of figures identifying the telephone of a particular subscriber, and used in making connections to that telephone.
• Foundational building blocks of an enterprise vocabulary.
• Key concept within the business term definition.
• Purpose is consistency, reusability and relationships between data.
• Support the categorization of business terms and related data.• May have more than one definition based on context.
Note: More than one definition should only be allowed if the context is explicitly
discernable when a relation to business term is established.
• Does not have a direct relationship with physical attributes.
• Definition of the Business Concept should not leverage the Business Concept Name.
• Leverage multi-word components when decomposition of a phrase causes loss of information about the business. By putting two or more words together the definition changes and becomes more robust.
• When possible avoid synonyms.
Value of the Business Concepts
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Goals Reuse
Best Practices
Organizing the business assets in a way that helps end users access data establishing a controlled vocabulary.
Navigate FindUnderstandCommunicateTrust
Employee Business Concept – the folder
Employee Telephone Number
Employee Birth Date Business Terms – within the folder
What concept(s) will the user
search for in the repository
It’s an art!
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Goals Reuse
Best Practices
Avoid
Reuse
Trust
•Unnecessary References (Application Names, Vendor Names, LoB, Geographic Locations)
•Avoid usage, concentrate on the content
•Avoid technical details that don’t change the meaning of the content.
•Embrace one Enterprise Vocabulary - Speak the same language
•Define with future use in mind
•Add a qualifier when
•The definition of the business concept is needed for a user to understand the data
•The qualifier is what a user will type in search (support organization of business glossary).
•It could prevent misuse of data
•Document what question the data answers in its purest form
•Providing enough context so a user will not misuse or misinterpret the data
Good
Better
BestThe Business Glossary Evolves Improves and gets Better over time.
Q & A
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