Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
These are just a few of the things that may be of interest. Additional
details such as field type and length may be included for the benefit of a
more technical audience. However, ensure that the business perspective is
represented; otherwise, the data dictionary will only be useful for the technical
staff.
The data dictionary application is more than just the database itself. It
must enable designated users to enter and maintain the data dictionary. This
needs to be done in bulk or on an individual basis. The bulk loads will likely
be from spreadsheets that have been created during a development project.
The individual maintenance will be done over time to keep the existing data
dictionary current and accurate.
The other primary capability of the data dictionary application is the
ability to view the contents of the data dictionary itself. This should be
a straightforward, basic application for viewing the contents of the data
dictionary database.
Populating the Data Dictionary
Once the database or wiki is set up and an interface is provided for the data
dictionary, it is like having a bound topic with blank pages. It is only useful
when the content is added. This is where the really hard work begins. With
all of the company's databases to choose from and likely tens of thousands of
data elements, how do you get started?
To begin, pick one system or database, and try to choose one that is
being worked on for other reasons already. This may be for a set of major
enhancements to a system, or the system has been identified to feed the data
warehouse. If this data was loaded into the data warehouse, you already know
that this data is of interest to the business and provides value.
The data warehouse team must work with the business and the technical
teams to understand the contents of this database in order to effectively
model and build the data warehouse components. The data warehouse team
needs to develop clear business names and definitions for all the data to be
published through the data warehouse. Because the data warehouse team will
be performing some of this work anyway, it makes sense to combine the data
dictionary work with the data warehouse. Make sure that the project scope
and funding takes this work into account.
As always, when there are not enough resources, documentation tends to
be ignored. Because populating the data dictionary is additional work, more
resources should be allocated to the data warehouse team to ensure that this
actually happens. This is not meant to imply that this is only a data warehouse
issue, but sometimes it needs to be started there.
You can get a jump start by loading the technical details in from the
database itself. This is a technical task, but the application developer or
