Understanding Infosphere Metadata Workbench

What is Metadata Workbench?

Metadata Workbench is part of the Information Server suite of products, which all share a common repository and set of services. By default the Information Server Repository is DB2, but Oracle, and other database systems are also supported.

In order to work effectively with Metadata Workbench, we need to have an understanding of Information Server and the suite of products it hosts.

It is a tool for managing metadata; it manages all three types of metadata –

• Business – Business rules, Definitions, Terminology, Glossaries, Algorithms and Lineage using business language. Audience: Business users.
• Technical – Defines Source and Target systems, their Table and Fields structures and attributes, Derivations and Dependencies. Audience: Specific Tool Users –BI, ETL, Profiling, Modeling.
• Operational – Information about application runs: their frequency, record counts, component by component analysis and other statistics. Audience: Operations, Management and Business Users.

It is a product within the Information Server suite of products. Which manages metadata assets produced by the products within Information Server, including –

• Mapping specifications created by FastTrack
• ETL jobs built in and executed by DataStage
• Data quality jobs built in and executed by DataStage
• Business terms defined in Business Glossary
• Data reports generated by Information Analyzer

It manages metadata assets linked to Information Server metadata assets, including –

• Data resources (relational tables, data files, applications) accessed by DataStage ETL jobs and used for Information Analyzer reports
• Data modeling tool documents
• BI reports

It also enables us to understand the relationships between the different metadata assets through graphs and reports.

Metadata Workbench functionality –

Metadata Workbench supports three different categories of functionality. We can use it to gain information about the metadata within the Repository (Explore).

We can also use it to examine associations and dependencies between the metadata assets (Analyze).

In addition, there are capabilities for capturing additional metadata and then integrating it with other existing metadata (Capture).

The Capture functionality is available within the InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager (IMAM) tool, which is an Information Server tool that works in conjunction with Metadata Workbench.

This tool is used to capture metadata that is consumed by Information Server applications such as DataStage.

Explore –

1. Explore metadata assets, including jobs, reports, databases, models, terms, stewards, systems, specifications, data quality rules
2. Easy navigation of assets
3. Simple and advanced search capabilities
4. Robust query builder
5. Integrated cross-view of Information Server and external linked assets
6. Graphical view of asset relationships

Analyze –

1. Analyze dependencies and relationships between metadata assets, including jobs, BI reports, and data models
2. Trace data lineage through DataStage jobs and to and from databases, jobs, and reports
3. Assess the impact of change across information assets
4. Graphical display of data lineage and impact analysis

Capture –

1. Capture information, relationships, and operational data to enhance information reports and analyses
2. Use Metadata Asset Manager to integrate external metadata assets with Information Server metadata assets
3. Extend data linkages to data resources and applications outside of Information Server
4. Enhance data lineage and impact analysis reports through user-defined linkages

Most of the metadata explored, analyzed, and managed within Metadata Workbench is metadata produced or consumed by Information Server products.

Exploring in Metadata Workbench –

We can use Metadata Workbench to explore all the metadata stored within the Information Server Repository. This includes metadata produced by Information Server applications such as DataStage, as well as metadata capture into the Repository to be consumed by Information Server applications.

All metadata assets are accessible to simple and advanced search capabilities and robust query capabilities. The asset information can be presented in several ways: reports, standard asset window, and a graphic window of information.

Asset information can be enhanced in a number of ways: assets can be linked to business terms, stewards, and labels. Notes can be added to explain and document the assets.

• Explore metadata assets including jobs, reports, databases, files, tables, columns, terms, stewards, servers
• Simple and advanced search capabilities
• Robust query capabilities
• Multiple ways to search by asset class, name, property
• Save results in various supported formats of reports
• View graphs of asset relationships
• Create and edit descriptions of assets

Understanding InfoSphere Business Glossary

What is Business Glossary?

The business glossary is a formal contract between the producers and consumers of information across the enterprise.

It is intended to be the artifact or reference that allows anyone to determine the meaning, type and context of any term and, in particular, any business data element used in an initiative.

Business Glossary is a tool for Authoring, Managing, and Sharing Business Metadata. Business Glossary is a tool for business users that enables –

• The creation & management of a controlled vocabulary
• Collaborative authoring of business metadata

A reference for learning about the information assets of the enterprise –

• Meaning
• Dependencies
• Usage
• Quality
• Ownership/Responsibility

Benefits of InfoSphere Business Glossary –

Business Glossary provides users with a web-based tool for creating and managing standard definitions of business and organization concepts by using a controlled vocabulary.

The tool divides metadata into categories, each of which contains terms. One can use terms to classify other objects in the metadata repository that are based on the needs of the organization.

One can also designate users or groups as stewards for metadata objects. The result is a system that builds a common language between business and information technology.

Enables data governance

• Common language supports compliance regulations such as Basel II
• Represent and expose business relationships and lineage
• Track history of changes

 Accountability and responsibility

• Assign stewards as single point of contact

 Improved productivity

• Administrators can tailor the tool to the needs of their business users
• Access enterprise information you need when you need it
• Use and re-use information assets based on common semantic hub

Increased collaboration

• Capture and share annotations between team members
• Greater understanding of the context of information
• More prevalent use and reuse of trusted information

Why InfoSphere Business Glossary?

The business glossary organizes metadata into categories that contain terms. Terms can relate to the assets that are stored in the metadata repository or to external assets according to the standards and practices of the enterprise.

One can also designate specific users or user groups as stewards who are responsible for particular assets. Assets in this instance refer to instances of metadata within the metadata repository.

Business Glossary is designed to also provide –

• Linkage between business Terms and IT assets for understanding the contexts of IT and business
• Designed to answer: Where are the connection points?
• Assignment of Data Stewards to Terms and IT Assets
• A customizable, publishable set of business Terms

 Business Glossary is not designed to be –

• A data modeling tool (Rational Architect)
• An enterprise architecture hub for reuse of technical metadata by development applications (Information Server)
• An enterprise metadata repository (XMETA and Metadata Workbench)

A common vocabulary gives diverse users a common understanding of business concepts, improving communication and efficiency.

For example: one department in an organization might use the word “customer,” a second department might use the word “user,” and a third department might use the word “client,” all to describe the same type of individual.

Business Glossary enables the enterprise to capture these terms, define their meaning, create relationships between them (in the example above, where all three terms have the same meaning, they would be synonyms) and consolidate terminology to achieve increased precision in communications.