Things That Bug Me #3,381a
In my line of work, you read a lot of presentations. After awhile, these presentations all start to sound the same. With that in mind, I think the next time I read a "benefits" list like this one, I'm going to scream like I'm Janet Leigh in Psycho...
- Improved business-IT alignment
- Balanced decision-making and authority
- Consistent and open processes
- Value realization
Two observations:
- I virtually guarantee that you won't be able to determine where I got this list (or even if I made it up myself) because you could pretty much drop the entire thing into any vendor presentation.
- What the hell does any of this mean?
Someone pleeeeeease make it stop...
posted by Steve Putman at 12:41
1 Comments:
Steve,
I just read your article CDI and MDM are Broken, Part 1 at TDAN (http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/6122).
A couple of comments, perhaps loosely related to these things that bug you :-)
One:
Centralising MDM away from line-of-business applications into a specialised system is as much an architectural choice as an implementation of managerial philosophy. Centralised, that is.
I have a certain amount of sympathy for top-level pointy heads who must get some alignment across unruly divisions and branches and what have you. At least enough alignment that shows nicely in executive reports and, more importantly, in their quarterly filings.
So what's a manager to attempt but to centralise in one place, assign responsibility to one guy, then be able to demand accountability for results? Isn't it really simple for the executive?
The alternative I believe you're suggesting (forgive me for trying to guess before you published the second part of the article) is one of "cooperation with the Feds". Each one of us retains the right to name our names as we wish, but we concede that our names pretty much mean the same as the names of the other guys across the river.
Wonderful for each village, but what and how will the pointy heads choose from the many semantic equivalents?
At this point I guess I really need to wait for your next article.
Two:
One of the functions of a MDM hub is to centralise the updates, including functionality of human interfaces for entering, correcting, manipulating and showing master data.
IMHO, one of the good arguments for a centralised MDM approach is the fact that line-of-business applications rarely have a very good human interface for master data entry and update. They are focused towards the most efficient minimum functionality that "does the job" in the context of that application and of the business processes it supports.
In your approach towards, I quote from your article, "...a system for passively cataloging and organizing a company’s information assets ..." (my emphasis on 'passively'), where will the human-oriented functionality to manage master data items be implemented? (which is, IMO, different from the human interface needed to manage the taxonomy/ontology/semantics)
I look forward to seeing your next article in TDAN.
Best regards,
Gabriel Tanase
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