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Overview

How well are you doing in supporting your meta data environment? You have purchased the software, hired a staff and got a few customers on board. Now, you're asking yourself how will you keep moving forward to handle more data, more customers and more engagements while continuing to expand the value delivered by the repository collection. This month's article will review the different elements of a support model, especially how the model can be applied to an online environment. The first two areas will be discussed this month while the final three will be described next month. Figure 1 provides an image of the model described here.

Figure 1: Meta Data Support Model

Focusing on the middle section, the meta data support model asks five basic questions of the technology environment:

• What meta data products and services are available to me?
• How can I utilize these products and services within my environment?
• Who can help me in case I need some professional guidance?
• Are the meta data applications ready for enterprise usage?
• How am I doing in comparison to others and against best practices?

What is Available?

The customer wants to know what products, services and documentation are available to them within the meta data environment. While we may know our meta data products and services hands down, the majority of customers don't. Former CEO of HP, Carly Fiorina said it wonderfully when she commented that, "HP makes three product announcements per day, can you name them? Our customers can't."

Products

While there are many products in the world of meta data, the fundamental one is the repository. The repository defines how the meta data will be stored, presented and integrated into the corporate environment. The repository design will emerge from the various artifacts already produced which include the user requirements, research from the business case and the architectures described by the technical community. The repository should be based on solid design principles and subjected to usability studies. As described in the DMReview.com column (February 2005), the repository environment is not just the repository but an entire collection of applications:

1. The asset portal which organizes the asset collection and provides a customized interface
2. The traditional repository which includes the meta-model, acquisition, storage, refinement, and distribution of the meta data
3. Business processes
4. Application processes
5. Customer support environment

Knowledge management, information architecture, content management, search engine technology and portalization are just a few of the evolutionary benefits of implementing meta data at the enterprise level. The meta data product line serves as the foundation from which processes and services can be built.

Services

The natural progression of any organization is to move beyond the product and into value-add services. Services are what make the difference between doing the job and creating a "meta data" cause. Meta data is more than products and procedures; meta data is a philosophy that must be supported by a service-oriented staff and value offering. The Meta Data Services Group (notice the middle name) can offer many types of "best practices" including vocabulary management, domain standardization, term inventories, ontology development, etc. Value-add services can also be added to the portfolio such as PDF conversion, meta-tag standardization, subscriptions, reservations, inventory management, XML vocabulary management and records management methodologies.

Services are not always physical; many services are more subject matter expertise (SME) oriented. How do you ensure that content can be located within the corporate search engine, how do you manage assets within the technical communities or how do you enable reuse in a non-development oriented organization? Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX,), service-oriented architecture (SOA) and enterprise application integration (EAI) continue to ask the question of how enterprise ready are the services delivered by the Meta Data Services Group.

Artifacts

Artifacts include the associated documentation for the product or services defined in the prior section as well as user guides, documented best practices, templates, disaster recovery plans, backup strategy, etc. In many cases, the repository can hold the unstructured documentation that supports the engagement and not just the application as well as artifacts such as logical models, data mappings, vocabulary definitions and policies for data administration. Policies, standards, models and methodologies - based on the principles outlined by the architecture, govern the acquisition and use of data and information technology. Regular updates and communications are essential in order to keep the evolution of value moving forward.

How do I do that?

While the products and services focus on what's available, users also want to know how business functions can be executed within the tool environment. All users are different in their needs and knowledge background. Figure 1 provided a dotted line link between training and the artifact section since many of these elements are generally closely related.