On the Road to Managed Metadata

Presentation Summary

Nancy McQuillen and Yan Ren; University of Washington

On the Road to Managed Metadata

The University of Washington’s metadata team is pursuing a two-part agenda in 2013 to 1) improve the understanding and use of central EDW data assets, and 2) establish a campus-wide “information asset” registry and dictionary. This session will report progress to-date and lessons learned related to the processes, people and tools employed in the two parts of this program. Part 1: EDW metadata. UW’s EDW is evolving toward self-service BI, based on increasingly robust dimensional models. This progress surfaces the “gap in understanding” between the development team and the end users. The users find it hard to grasp the meaning of the data without well named and clearly defined business metadata. To bridge this gap the team developed a standard framework to create and manage business metadata for the EDW and BI. The framework includes standardized metadata elements, identified stakeholders and roles, streamlined authoring, approval and publishing processes, and supporting tools. The benefits extend beyond BI to also influence data governance and data quality. Part 2: Campus metadata. In comparison with the EDW metadata program, the campus-wide program documents a broader range of “information assets”, including reports, documents, and webpages in addition to database data. All of these assets can be searched by keywords, synonyms, and other semantically related business terms within the registry. The road to campus metadata maturity is predicted to be long and challenging. The program includes education and outreach activities to the data custodian community, to enlist their help in metadata development and glossary consolidation, and to raise awareness of campus and EDW data and metadata resources.