by Angela Guess
A recent article points out seven common mistakes made in enterprise data modeling: “New methods, tools and techniques can overwhelm many IT professionals whose organizations are initiating enterprise data modeling programs. Enterprise data modeling uses logical and physical data models to encourage a practical balance between enterprise and project points of view. This type of data modeling comprises both application and enterprise data models, enables IT groups to respond quickly and effectively to business needs, delivers information that is the most useful to the business, and uses the proper tools and techniques in delivering project outcomes. Eager to deliver a well-managed enterprise architecture, IT professionals sometimes still have concerns about possible missteps along the way. In fact, seven common mistakes that organizations can make in developing enterprise data models each have a cost that negatively impacts individual projects, and the information technology group as a whole.”
The first mistake is forgetting that an enterprise architecture is a living framework: “Some IT professionals think of data architecture as a final, fixed deliverable instead of a versioned view of the business. Many project plans arrive with a start and end date for the data modeling effort, where the logical model ends on a Thursday and the physical model starts (and can be completed) on Friday, with no tasks or resources assigned for refinements. This sort of finish-to-start mentality can lead to the perception of incomplete tasks and projects – and unmet business needs – as refinements are a natural and expected part of any modeling effort. This type of pitfall is almost guaranteed if non-data management professionals develop project plans in isolation. If team members do not understand that data models, like other project deliverables, can be versioned, shared and reused, they are likely to misunderstand the role of models during a project’s lifecycle. Every phase of a project can lead to refining previous decisions, understandings and changes due to external influences.”
Learn about the rest of the mistakes here.
