Metadata Management and Data Governance - Data Governance: Creating Value from Information Assets - page 48

Program Governance Project Governance

• Long-term focus • Short-term focus

• Enterprise focus • Specific project focus

• Requires architecture with the benefits
of standards and reuse

• Does not require architecture with the
benefits of standards and reuse

FIGURE 3.4
Program versus project governance.

the data. It is used to facilitate understanding, usage, and management of
data. For example, in the past when we went to ind a topic at the library,
we could search in the card catalog using metadata, i.e., by title, author, or
subject. hese attributes are metadata. Now, if you want to ind a topic on
bicycling, you merely type in bicycling at a bookstore Web site and a list of
topics on bicycling would appear. his is an example of utilizing metadata.
A metadata framework describes how the metadata is stored and uti-
lized. A strong metadata framework is critical for the successful implemen-
tation of a data governance program. If you do not have a strong metadata
framework, you do not have the systems setup to query or otherwise utilize
the metadata.

METADATA TYPES

Metadata can be classified into four types:

1. Business metadata

2. Technical metadata

3. Process metadata

4. Operational metadata

Business Metadata

Business metadata describes the business meaning of data. It includes busi-
ness definitions of the objects and metrics, hierarchies, and business rules.
An object is a data storage structure, such as the patient table. A metric is a
measure of something such as age. A hierarchy organizes the relationships