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What is Metadata Management?

Need to manage metadata management and want practical standards and best practices for information management governance and accountability?

What is data management?
Metadata Management
Data management is a sub-set of information management that governs organization and control of the structure and design, storage, movement, security and quality of information.

What is metadata?

Metadata is data describing, or specifying, other data or defining, and organizing, characteristics that need to be known about data, including (but not limited to) information about physical data representations, technical and business processes, rules and constraints, and data structures.

What is metadata management?

Sound metadata management practices ensure that information needed to support management and business intelligence decision making is accurate, accessible, complete, consistent, timely, valid and relevant and assists in maintaining high integrity over production data.
Metadata management standards and best practices checklist

The following should be addressed in metadata policy, standards and best practices.

Meta data checklist
A metadata policy, standards and best practices should be established.
The business owner should maintain business metadata, including business rules, organizational metadata and transformational metadata. 
Business metadata should include: 
  • Who: 
    • Owns the data i.e. data guardian;
    • Maintains the data i.e. data steward;
  • What the data means i.e. entity, attribute definitions and sample data;
  • Where:
    • The data comes from i.e. how is it collected;
    • The data is stored i.e. application system; 
  • When data is collected i.e. OLTP, daily feed, monthly feed; and 
  • How is it used e.g. management information, marketing analytics
The IT owner should maintain application metadata, including technical and physical metadata.
Application data should include:
  • Who:
    • Maintains the application i.e. IT owner;
    • Maintains the database i.e. production DBA; and
    • Is responsible for change control
  • What:
    • The data looks like e.g. logical/physical data models;
    • The data means e.g. table/column definitions, and sample data;
    • The data profile looks like e.g. for each table and column, the number of rows, min/max values, distinct values
    • Interfaces feed into and feed out of the application
  • Where:
    • The data originates from e.g. system of record
    • The data is stored e.g.
    • Server
    • Database name
    • IP address
    • The data goes to e.g. downstream systems/applications
    • It is archived including near and off-site storage 
  • When it is updated; backed-up, archived, stored off-site
  • How it is moved between applications e.g. transfer mechanisms
The business owner of the data that the metadata supports for accuracy, timeliness, relevancy, consistency and validity should periodically review metadata
Processes should be established to move data model metadata to the corporate metadata repository
Metadata should be adequately controlled and documented in an approved and published metadata repository and metadata back-up/restore procedures should be established
Metadata users should be assigned appropriate access rights and privileges
Processes should be established to move data movement model metadata  to the corporate metadata repository
The IT owner should maintain application metadata, including technical and physical metadata
Metadata should be stored in an approved enterprise metadata repository that complies with an approved information technology standards list
Information management security should  include  provision for preventing unauthorized access to the metadata repository
Data quality objectives should be  included in metadata repositories.
Project management framework should specify:
  • Metadata tasks and deliverables; and
  • A responsible, approve, consult, inform (RACI) matrix.
Accountabilities for each key role involved in metadata management should be defined and communicated to all stakeholders?
Project management plans and project quality management plans should  include provision for metadata quality assurance reviews and approvals
Processes should be defined to specify how metadata is  maintained e.g. additions, deletions and modifications
Human resources policies should specify that business owners are responsible for maintaining business metadata, including business rules, organizational metadata and transformational metadata, and roles, responsibilities and position descriptions should be clearly defined.
The business intelligence framework should includes provision for metadata management standards and best practices.
The  change management methodology and framework should  ensure that changes to metadata follow a documented and approved change management process
The release management process should include provision for migrating metadata to production.


Summary...

Metadata management standards and best practices should be defined to  ensure successful implementation of an information management discipline


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