The most overlooked component of any data warehouse is the
meta data.
A simple definition for meta data is “data about
data”. Meta data answers who, what, when, where, why and how questions
about the information in the data warehouse. One example of meta data is
the “business definition” for a column on a report.
There are two main types of meta data: business meta data
and technical meta data. Business meta data primarily focuses on the
needs of the business information consumer. Technical meta data provides
information for the technical staff supporting our systems.
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Business Meta Data
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Meta Data Description
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Business data name
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A name that uses business terminology to describe a data object
(table/file, column/field, term).
Example of a column name: Customer Name.
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Business definition
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A definition that uses business terminology to describe a data
object. Example: The name of a customer.
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Allowable values
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A list, definition or example of the values that can be entered in a
data element (column/field/term).
Examples of allowable values are: specifying the type of data - like
“amounts”; listing ranges of values; domain tables/lists.
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Business contact
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The person or group to contact if you have business questions about a
data object. The business contact is
responsible for the business definition, allowable values and the procedures
related to the data. Example: Ann Smith
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IT contact
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The person or group to contact if you have technical questions about
a data object. The IT contact is
responsible for the technical support of the data. Example: Bill Brown.
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Source data name
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The name that describes where the data originated (table/file). Example:
PeopleSoft system.
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Business transformation description
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A business explanation for the source to target transformation
(explanation of how the source data was altered to get the desired state for
the target data). Example: The
Customer table is loaded from the operational source – Customer file.
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Refresh frequency
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An explanation of how often the data warehouse table is updated and
the timing of those updates. Example:
Updated monthly by the third day of each month.
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Refresh type
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An explanation of how the data warehouse table is updated. Example: Each time a new customer is added
into the Customer operational table, a new row is added to the target table.
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Technical Meta Data
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Meta Data Description
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Technical data name
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A name that uses technical terminology to describe a data object
(table/file, column/field, term).
Example: CUST_NM
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Data Type
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The physical types of data that are assigned by the database or file
management system. Examples are
Integer, Decimal, Datetime, Character, VarChar.
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Key Type
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Indicates whether the data (column) is a key value and the type of
key it is. Examples are Primary Key,
Primary/Foreign Key or Not a Key.
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Data Length
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The physical length of the column or field that stores the data. Example: 50
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Last Update Date/Time
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The date and time that the table was last updated.
Example: 01/21/2000 7:46:27 AM
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Successful Rows Count
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The number of rows that were successfully loaded into the table
during a given load. Example: 10,000
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Failed Rows Count
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The number of rows that were rejected during a given load. Example: 0
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