Are there best practices or tools for creating a data dictionary?

Question: Are there best practices or tools for creating a data dictionary? Does the solution change if we are creating a data dictionary postproduction versus preproduction? Please advise if there are other sources to learn more about this topic.

Sid Adelman’s Answer: Take a look at Business Metadata by William Inmon, Bonnie O’Neil and Lowell Fryman. Also look at Dave Marco’s books and columns.

Tom Haughey’s Answer: I find conferences to be the best source for information on metadata. Try DebTech International and Wilshire Conferences., both of whom have Web sites. DAMA chapters exist throughout the world; you can refer to their Web sites too. You not only get to hear the presentations but can talk to other organizations grappling with the same issues. Ideally, metadata should not be created post-production. It should be collected as the data model evolves. It may be published post-production, which is perhaps what you mean, but not too long after or it will inhibit the usefulness of the warehouse.

Sid Adelman is a principal in Sid Adelman & Associates, an organization specializing in planning and implementing data warehouses, in data warehouse and BI assessments, and in establishing effective data architectures and strategies. He is a regular speaker at DW conferences. Adelman chairs the "Ask the Experts" column on www.dmreview.com. He is a frequent contributor to journals that focus on data warehousing. He co-authored Data Warehouse Project Management and is the principal author on Impossible Data Warehouse Situations with Solutions from the Experts and Data Strategy. He can be reached at (818) 783-9634 or sid@sidadelman.com. Visit his Web site at www.sidadelman.com.

Tom Haughey is the president of InfoModel LLC, a training and consulting company specializing in data warehousing and data management. He has worked on dozens of database and data warehouse projects for more than two decades. Haughey was former CTO for Pepsi Bottling Group and director of enterprise data warehousing for PepsiCo. He may be reached at (201) 337-9094 or via e-mail at tom.haughey@InfoModelUSA.com.

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