Universal Meta Data Models [Paperback]

David Marco (Author), Michael Jennings (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471081779 | ISBN-13: 978-0471081777 | Publication Date: April 9, 2004

• The heart of the book provides the complete set of models that will support most of an organization's core business functions, including universal meta models for enterprise-wide systems, business meta data and data stewardship, portfolio management, business rules, and XML, messaging, and transactions
• Developers can directly adapt these models to their own businesses, saving countless hours of development time
• Building effective meta data repositories is complicated and time-consuming, and few IT departments have the necessary expertise to do it right-which is why this book is sure to find a ready audience
• Begins with a quick overview of the Meta Data Repository Environment and the business uses of meta data, then goes on to describe the technical architecture followed by the detailed models

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create world-class MME solutions using this set of ready-made meta data models

Your company’s prosperity depends on how well you gather, retain, and disseminate knowledge. By implementing a Managed Meta Data Environment (MME), you can effectively manage your data and information technology applications in order to achieve a strategic advantage over the competition. As a follow-up to Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository (Wiley), this book provides you with the tools to implement a world-class MME and create a systematic enterprise solution for meta data management. The authors first present an overview of the architectural components of the MME and include case studies that demonstrate how corporations are taking advantage of MME solutions in the real world.

They then dive into the details of the models that compose the MME and their major areas of interaction.

You’ll find a complete set of meta data models that you can adapt to meet the needs of your company while saving countless hours of development time. Marco and Jennings offer an introduction to each model’s definition, guidance on implementation, an example of reports that can be generated, and much more. With all of this information, you’ll be able to model a meta data repository for:

• Enterprise systems
• XML, messaging, and business transactions
• IT portfolio management
• Business rules, business meta data, and data stewardship
• Complete universal meta model

The CD-ROM contains the data models and meta data mart files described in the book as well as an evaluation version of AllFusion ERwin Data Modeler.

Visit the companion Web site at www.EWSolutions.com/book.asp

About the Author

DAVID MARCO is the world’s foremost authority on meta data. He is the founder and President of Enterprise Warehousing Solutions, Inc., a GSA schedule and Chicago-headquartered stra-tegic partner and systems integrator. Marco is also the author of Building and Managing the Meta Data Repository (Wiley).

MICHAEL JENNINGS is an enterprise architect and global data warehousing strategist in the human resources outsourcing technology architecture practice at Hewitt Associates. He is a monthly columnist for DM Review Magazine and a frequent speaker on business intelligence issues at major data warehousing conferences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471081779
• ISBN-13: 978-0471081777
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #905,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reference from a RDBMS perspective, December 6, 2005

By 

Daniel G. Mccreary "Dr. Data Dictionary" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Universal Meta Data Models (Paperback)

Although this is a well written book, for a book published in 2004 with the word "universal" in the title, I expected a little more modern treatment of metadata. This book begins with the statement that Mr. Marco is the "world's foremost authority on metadata". And although I agree that the book does have several good points, it does not appear to be a well-rounded textbook on metadata. There are however several well-written sections on the relationship between the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and metadata and the process of creating data stewardship teams. I was disappointed that the book does not even mention ISO/IEC 11179, RDF, OWL or any other modern tuple-based metadata technologies. The book does however mention how to use COBOL REDEFINES, DASD and other mainframe techniques to use metadata. The central thesis of the book is that metadata can and should be stored in a relational databases. The argument is that although relational structure are sometimes limiting, the prevalence of SQL skill sets make it practical to use relational databases to store metadata. The book includes a CD with ERWIN™ files and a 30 day evaluation copy of ERWIN. The book also suffers from some formatting omissions such as the fact that most of the data models listed in the appendix lack titles.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rather superficial treatment of metadata management, January 4, 2009

By 

Oscar Madison (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Universal Meta Data Models (Paperback)

If you want to know how to model certain types of metadata, this book might be of some help. It didn't help me to understand how to build a metadata management system. The book proposes a metadata management architecture; it describes the obvious parts of this architecture in great detail while the really interesting questions remain open. For instance, the really critical part is metadata integration. The book spends two meager paragraphs for this topic. The book repeatedly refers to metadata integration tools which can be bought or developed. A survey of such tools is however missing; thus if you want to know whether to buy or build a metadata management system, the book won't help you. Another example for missing detail is the statement that many architects treat the metadata management system as a data warehouse, while in Marco's view it is an operational system (which probably means that metadata should be continuously loaded), but the book never explains what an "operational" metadata management system would be (there are still metadata sources which are used in an operational way).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, June 29, 2010

By 

Tom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Universal Meta Data Models (Paperback)

Mr. Marco has been meta data management's greatest evangelist for over a decade. His speeches and writings are so practical and useful that I couldn't believe that I hadn't written a review on this book yet, so hear it is. I found this book to be extremely helpful in my work in transforming our repository into an enterprise-grade Managed Meta Data Environment.

Chapter 1: Gives examples of various industry specific meta data management examples and how they help a company gain a competitive advantage. Mr. Marco also walks through the various corporate challenges that necessitate our need to manage meta data properly.

Chapter 2: Presents a detailed, technical walkthrough of the Management Meta data Environment (MME). A deep read that any meta data architect would benefit from. The author then discusses the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and its role in meta data management. He concludes the chapter with a brief discussion of meta data standards.

Chapter 3: This is my favorite chapter in the book. Mr. Marco goes through various real-world examples of how to use an MME based on 7 different industries. He then concludes the chapter by presenting Allstate Insurance's and RBC Financial's MME implementations. If you follow this field at all you know that these are two of the top implementations in the indsutry.

Chapters 4 - 7: Each of these chapters presents a physical meta data model that focuses on a particular meta data subject-area (Enterprise Systems, XML/Messaging, IT Portfolio Management and Data Governance/Business Rules).

Chapter 8: Takes the models presented in Chapters 4 - 7 and merges them to create one, large, enterprise-level meta model. This model along is worth the price of the book.

This book saved us countless hours trying to plan and develop our system. His excellent examples provided and the detail of the steps required were an absolute solution to our issues.