Master Data Management

Do MDM first!

You heard me!

Many people think that master data management is some sort of super advanced data warehouse technique. It is not. MDM is fundamental to a properly functioning EDW.

What is MDM you ask?

This is the collection of processes necessary to manage your master data. Your master data is data that might be sourced from different systems but is ultimately the same entity. Customers are a good example of a master data entity.

Ideally, master data management is something that should be set up on day one. If your organization is large enough to keep data in different systems, then in all likelihood, you have data about the same entity stored in different places using different system keys, and it is difficult to tell which entities are the same and which ones are different. Proper master data management processes solve this problem. Frequently, clients want to put this off. It is a bad idea. Everybody has this problem, and you are going to have to deal with it sooner or later. The sooner you deal with this issue, the cheaper the solution will be.

The challenge with MDM is multi-dimensional and beyond the scope of this document. The relevant aspect of MDM that the framework solves is the software piece. The framework provides some code to help you manage your master data.

The code provided is not a full MDM solution. It is a stopgap to make managers comfortable and to provide a solution until expensive MDM software can be purchased.