I had some good news today – my speaking proposal for EDW next year was accepted. My topic this time is “Joining the dots – mapping expectations to reality“.
Data models are often developed in total isolation, resulting in islands of disconnected metadata. Those data models could describe the transition of data from web form to database, from requirements to implementation, from ERP system to Data Warehouse, from Data Warehouse to data mart to report, from messaging standard to SOA messages, but they can’t do that unless you join them together. Call the connections what you like, you need to create them to make sense of the context of your data.
Most of the places I go to have data models (even if only a few data models), but they’re very rarely connected to anything else, not even to each other, so I’m going to talk about how you decide what to connect, and how to connect them. I’m going to use my ‘metadata archipelago‘ analogy to illustrate this, and cover the following points.
• the whys and wherefores of data model mappings
• how the data model pyramid can help you determine the mappings you need
• automating the creation of model mappings
• how to prioritize your efforts
• how to exploit those mappings
• who you need to have on your side
If you have any personal experiences you’d like to share with me about what has or hasn’t made a difference for you, please contact me using the link at the top of the blog screen.