META DATA IS THE ANSWER; NOW WHAT WAS THE QUESTION? PART III
by Robert S. Seiner -- Spectrum Technology Group

7. Does meta data play a role in package implementation?

The first six answers to the first six questions made the case that meta data is an integral part of every tool and every component of most company's information technology. Over the past twenty years or so, while companies were developing their IT architectures and data structures, companies inherently knew the data structures, development tools, and software modules and features (so to speak) like the back of their hands. With that in mind, companies that purchase packages have the dilemma of moving data that they understand well (hopefully) to a piece of vendor software that they had nothing to do with developing.

When implementing packages like SAP, PeopleSoft, D&B, ... the amount of knowledge your company has about the vendor's software and data (the meta data) is typically non-existent at the beginning of the implementation. Moving data to a vendor-developed system without knowing the target data definition, the flow of the processes, the program names, the data field names, and on and on, is a recipe for disaster. This information is found in meta data. Some package vendors are better than others when it comes to supplying meta data in the form of data models, data definitions, and component documentation. Buyer beware.

A company that is implementing packaged software spends a lot of time researching, coordinating, and developing the movement of data into and out of the package data structures. It is common sense to believe that integrators need to know the meaning and structure of both the source and target data. In many organizations, since meta data for older systems was not managed, the information gained through the research of the legacy applications should be considered valuable meta data. It is good advise to take advantage of research that is performed for large package software integration or data warehousing implementation, since most of the documentation created during the development effort can prove to be very valuable to the package users and warehouse end users.

8. Does meta data play a role in your Year 2000 effort?

The Year 2000 problem (Y2K) is a complicated problem that was caused by and can be fixed using meta data. The Y2K problem is in existence because of meta data problems like: dates being stored in non-date data types, the elimination of the century part of the year to reduce the date to four positions saving data storage costs, and because fields that are dates can not be identified through element names.

Other complex Y2K meta data problems include business rules that were coded in programs that do not account for the use of "00" as the year, sorting problems, embedded dates in production data as a means of record keeping, and more.

Companies are spending millions of dollars having SOMEONE ELSE document how their data interacts between applications, locating date fields, and coordinating system changes with internal and external sources and targets of data. Most of the outsourced vendors and consultants ship source code and data definitions to a "factory" when it is scanned/parsed and automatically analyzed for occurrences of potential date related problems. The results of the parsing, and the data that is analyzed to solve Y2K problem, is meta data.

Companies that have managed meta data for years (and these number few and far between) have a step up on solving the Y2K problem. Companies that do not manage meta data are quickly finding that meta data holds the key to successful completion of the Year 2000 work. It is not unheard of for companies to purchase their meta data repository solely as a tool to prepare them (and their systems and data) for the new millenium.

These eight questions (and therefore the related meta data) most likely touch on the data and information architecture core of most companies.

Many companies have a difficult time justifying the cost in money, time and resources to manage meta data and implement meta data repositories. If the individuals who control the IT budget would evaluate the role that meta data plays in EVERY aspect of the IT environment, the benefits of such an investment would become more apparent and justifying the expense of meta data management would become much easier.
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