MDmM - Master Data micro-Management (Part 1 of 2)

The tip of the MDM iceberg can intimidate the most experienced captain. One way to break the proverbial MDM ice is to start with a single attribute so that the business problem can be solved incrementally. Addressing a single attribute (or attribute group) through MDM principles and best practices can be thought of as Master Data micro-Management (MDmM).


A typical master data management initiative requires significant investment before an implementation that delivers business value is realized. A MDM initiative requires a serious commitment so that data standards can be defined and systematically enforced at an enterprise level for an entire subject area, such as customer or product. Although the scope of MDM is constrained by information shared by systems across the enterprise and therefore is a subset of the complete universe of attributes for customer, product, et al., the overall effort is increased by the number of participating systems and the complexity of the integration.


Facing the daunting aspects of full-scale MDM, you probably have implemented a MDmM solution and you know that a critical success factor to MDmM is determining what attribute is suited for a small-scale MDM implementation. To help guide the discussion, let’s start with establishing criteria for identifying MDmM attributes:

• The attribute must be tightly-bound. An attribute is tightly-bound when its domain values are limited (ideally <=5).
• The attribute must be easily-derived. An attribute is easily derived if it can be transformed with minimal complexity into a defined standard.
• The attribute must be well-defined. An attribute is well-defined when you can look at the column name and immediately recognize what the information represents. This is an exaggeration of course, but you shouldn’t have to dig for the dead-sea scrolls to determine the true meaning of the attribute.
• The attribute must be business-essential. Saving the best for last, an attribute is business-essential when the absence of the attribute within the scope of a process causes failures, unhandled events, or non-compliance.
  

Like all MDM standards, MDmM guidelines are open to amendment and interpretation, but in the next installation of this topic, we will explore two attributes (account-holder status and product description) that should illustrate the concept.