PART II
Architectural Considerations

CHAPTER 4 MDM Architecture Classification, Concepts, Principles, and Components

CHAPTER 5 Data Management Concerns of MDM Architecture: Entities, Hierarchies and Metadata

CHAPTER 6 MDM Services for Entity and Relationships Resolution and Hierarchy Management

CHAPTER 7 Master Data Modeling

In the introductory part of this book, we offered a broad-brush description of the purpose, drivers, and key benefits of Master Data Management and used some specific examples of its customer-focused variant, Customer Data Integration. This part of the book discusses the issues of MDM architecture as a key logical step to building enterprise-wide solutions.

An architecture discussion is important for several reasons:

• A comprehensive end-to-end MDM solution is much more than just a database of customer or product information organized by some kind of a unique key. Some MDM capabilities and components are “traditional” and are a part of a common best-practice design for integrated data solutions, whereas other, new features came to light primarily in the context of MDM problem domains. An architectural vision can help organize the “old” and the “new” features into an integrated, scalable, and manageable solution.

• MDM is not just a technology problem—a comprehensive MDM solution consists of technology components and services as well as new business processes and even organizational structures and dynamics. There are many architecture viewpoints, significant complexity, and a large number of interdependencies to warrant a framework-based approach to the architecture. This multifaceted, multidimensional architecture framework looks at the overall problem domain from different but complementary angles.

• Any solution intended to create an authoritative, accurate, and timely system of record that should eventually replace existing legacy sources of the information must be integrated with the overall enterprise architecture and infrastructure. Given the heterogeneity and the “age” of legacy systems, this requirement is often difficult to satisfy without a comprehensive architecture blueprint.

Thus, we organized this part of the book in the following fashion: First, we discuss the architectural genesis of MDM. Then, we take a closer look at the enterprise architecture framework and explain how this framework helps us to see different aspects of the solution as interconnected and interdependent views. This discussion is followed by an overview of traditional data management and emerging concerns of MDM architecture, MDM data modeling, data management architecture, and the newer concept of MDM services.