Customer Reviews

Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository: A Full Lifecycle Guide

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you want to begin learning about metadata, this is a great place to start. It is quite difficult to find books on metadata these days. Metadata is discussed in other books on data warehousing, but nobody tells you in details how to implement a metadata repository. The author gives a good overview of metadata fundamentals, architecture solutions, current industry trends and more. He pays much attention to the issues of project management during repository construction. I liked very much the Tool Evaluation Checklist for repository tools selection. I did not like the fact though, that the author did not pay much attention to business metadata. The seven classes of metadata do not seem to cover all the types of metadata one can meet in real life. In spite of some minor drawbacks the author did a very good job. The book deserves its five stars. Thanks a lot, Mr. Marco!

Maybe it's because metadata has been somewhat of a mystery to me but I found this to be an excellent book. The beginning of the book starts out with the fundamentals and takes you through detailed architecture and implementation. Even the project plan and tool evaluation checklist are valuable. Especially appreciated is the way the book relates the various tools, technologies, procedures and standards together. The author also makes effective use of practical examples and his experience. You get the feeling that the book was written by one person, who knows what they are talking about, instead of the many contributors that so often collaborate on other books. Even though the book was written before the MDC/OMG merger, the author correctly predicts that they will merge and a single meta model will emerge. The book is also up to date enough to explain the relevance of XML to metadata.

As a knowledge management worker for a large pharmaceutical, my company is taking a keen interest in meta data.

This book has a lot of real world advice for bringing this very mysterious topic into workable focus, to enable a company to share information assets and facilitate their effective re-use.

When one thinks about it, meta data is the key to Amazon's success. Can you imagine if Amazon's repository of information was nothing more than the content of the books themselves and their titles? We would be nowhere. I marvel that Amazon is able, through meta data, to deliver more knowledge, and to enable that knowledge to foster yet more collaboration and knowledge...in fact to model my tastes and get me to buy books I didn't even know about!!

David Marco discusses a lot of challenges that large information management projects face and the criticality of key roles in a meta data project (such as the information architect) and the need for user requirements. There are really a lot of pitfalls in approaching meta data (the first being to educate the laypersons in your company as to what it is, and its power, to get funding!).

Good book. Good advice, especially pertaining to the political aspects. Navitating through the politics and getting buyin is 90% of the meta data challenge, and am thankful he has experiences to share and advice on this.

This is the best technical book that I've read! This book walks through the fundamentals of meta data. Then it has all of the technical deliverables that you would use for a project and the sequence that you would use them in. Physical meta data models, meta data integration tool evaluation, and a project plan. The war stories that David Marco wrote are informative and fun.

Books and materials on Meta Data have a tendency to hyperbole on theoretical aspects. Recently I set out to find a book, on Meta Data, to accompany a presentation I was making to the Insurance Industry Association.

Business executives are concerned on return-on-investments for IT investments. Meta Data can be far removed from most executives mind share.

In my search for Meta Data reading material - I came across David Marco's book. Finally I found an author that can write effectively on Meta Data that addresses technical issues while answering questions that business executives will have.

It is very easy to get buried in theory with Meta Data - the challenge is to define an effective company-wide strategy that will increase efficiency and identify opportunities for further analytics. It is important to engage colleagues and built trust for Meta Data implementations.

Mr. Marco does an excellent job of discussing real-world Meta Data implementations. The ideas and concepts he discusses will greatly help most managers embark on a Meta Data strategy.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

While metadata as a concept has been around a while in academic circles, David Marco has published a very businesss-focused and practical book on using it in a commercial context. Includes thorough discussions on business case, technologies, staffing, project planning, and more. As project manager for a metadata repository at a Fortune 50 company, this was the most useful book I found.

Truth be told, I am a biased reader. I've heard David speak on many occasions and the only thing better than his writing is his speaking. David's practical and understandable approach to complex subject matter has always impressed me. Our company is just beginning to explore the possibilities building a Managed Meta Data Environment and this book is a home run introduction. If you are a meta data management professional this book is a must have as is David's second book "Universal Meta Data Models".

Good introduction for the concepts and tasks for building a MDM, at the time it was published.

The MDM presented is more of a source-to-target kind of MDM, and less of a codeset MDM. For reference-based systems such as warehouses, codesets are used a lot more, which does not fit too well in this kind of design. The project management steps were good in that it provides a starting point for discussions.
The design works well in most business situations, except for decision-based systems, which contain variable and calculation information.

Would have been very helpful if there were conceptual and logical models as well as a physical data model. The DDL was incorrect (duplicates in foreign keys), but it is forgiveable. Overall, presents a lot of information to think about.

I've spent over seven years creating metadata repositories and over this time I've definitely had to learn my craft the hard way. If I had this book from the start it would have made my life so much easier! This book is like two books in one, with the first part focusing on metadata fundamentals, ROI, architectural approaches, and how to evaluate metadata tools. The second part is like a consultant's handbook, with how to staff and scope the project, a project plan and an overview of the delivery mechanism. The metadata model in part two is very helpful; however, I do know that the author updated this model in his more recent metadata book. The "war" stories are particularly valuable as they made me feel like the author was watching the projects that I had worked on and correctly predicting all of the mistakes that I would make! If only I would have read the book sooner I could have avoided these pitfalls. Also this is the first book on metadata that is readable and addresses the subject from the business side. This is one of the most useful books that I've ever read!

Dave Marco takes what can be an often theoretical and abstract concept and breaks it down into practical and easy to understand terms and concepts. His real world experience and examples make it easy for the practitioner to understand what to watch out for and how to prepare for a successful project. This is the best book on the topic I have seen to date.