April
7th, 2006: White Paper: Meta Data and Information Architecture
Meta data is usually
seen and treated as an IT issue. In fact it is a business issue. But
does business care?
This
white paper describes experiences of a practitioner with information
architecture and meta data. After a (necessary) introduction, a summary
of these experiences is given followed by a description of a practical
approach to realize explicit, managed growth of information as a corporate
resource. The main purpose of this
white paper is to share knowledge. And to see if we can narrow the
existing gap between IT and business.
Concluding
remarks in the
White Paper
Meta data is usually seen as something of and for IT-specialists. The
reason is that most problems with meta data are strongly related to
what is happening in and around the IT-infrastructure. Problems with
knowing which data is where, bringing data together for all kind of
purposes (operational, managerial etc.) and many other issues
are problems that are related to meta data.
In this
white paper, meta data is related to the knowledge of the information
of an organization. This knowledge is the basis for the information architecture
of the organization. In fact, the information architecture ought to be
the basis for the meta data in the same way as the demand for information
is the basis for the supply of solutions. Ideally, differences between
demand and supply should not occur. When they do occur it means supply
does not meet demand (yet). Or: the IT-infrastructure does not
do (yet) what the organization wants it to do.
By developing and
managing the information architecture of an organization the demand
for information of this organization can be made explicit. Having good
knowledge of what the de-mand is will be leading for the definition
of meta data itself. Really knowing what the demand is, is crucial for
a real integration of the components of the IT-infrastructure and for
an optimal support of a flexibile, agile organization.
For these reasons,
and many more, the information architecture is crucial for an organization
to obtain real control and management over it IT-infrastructure. The
problem is that most or-ganizations still think and work in projects
on IT. Experience is that the described information architecture will
put all of this in the normal perspectives an organization has and works
with.