April 2003 - Volume 1, Issue 19

IN THIS ISSUE

Featured Article: Early 2003 Indicators Not Encouraging   

• Use of meta data entities - Part 4 of a series on abstraction   
• Why ETL and Data Migration Projects Fail   
• Meta Data - Neglected No Matter How You Spell It   

• Early 2003 Indicators Not Encouraging   
  

  Optimism for the year ahead is waning with the stock market pushing for a record fourth straight year of declines and since early March, a number of important and frankly, discouraging, data points for software companies. First, there are a handful of major software companies (including Lawson, Oracle, and Tibco) with non-calendar fiscal years and quarters (all of the above have a fiscal quarter ended February) that often provide a reasonable proxy for the broader software market ahead of the traditional calendar quarter (in this case, the March quarter).
• Use of meta data entities - Part 4 of a series on abstraction   
  

  In my first article in this series, I explained that abstraction is a tool that lets an artist efficiently capture and represent complex topics in a generic way. As data modelers, we are all artists to an extent, and abstraction is an efficient tool at our disposal as well. The first article in this series explained abstraction, the second article explained when to use abstraction, the third article discussed where to use abstraction, and this article explains the value of meta data entities when we choose to abstract. We will use an example from my last article to show first the value of abstracting and then how meta data entities can add even more value by retaining important business information within the design. After explaining what meta data entities are, we then discuss their pros and their drawback.
• Why ETL and Data Migration Projects Fail   
  

  Nearly every IT initiative today involves some level of data migration. Companies seeking to leverage newer, faster technologies must transfer data from legacy systems to new environments. Others are building business intelligence solutions by integrating data from various sources and using this data for strategic planning. Still, others are building more efficient business alliances by exchanging information between companies electronically.
• Meta Data - Neglected No Matter How You Spell It   
  

  We in the data management industry spell the word for "data about data" the three ways demonstrated above. So do the major data management publications, sometimes inter-changing the spellings within the same article or column. You'd think that data professionals that stress standards in many aspects of our business could select a single spelling that would satisfy the masses. Yet we can't.