See the companion webinar at: http://embt.co/1uHXmjv
The ever-growing interest in data accumulation from multiple sources and organizations for reporting and analysis exposes a dirty secret: those business terms that we all think we understand actually have a wide variety of definitions. Sometimes these variances are largely irrelevant, and do not significantly impact the ability to create a reasonable report. However, there are some instances in which even minor variations in structure, content, or semantics can have a significant impact in delivering trustworthy results.
This leads to the question: if we have two different structures or definitions for what appear to be two similar concepts, should we harmonize the definitions and structures into one? In some cases this will be a good idea, and it will lead to increased consistency, but this is only true as long as the two concepts really refer to the same real-world idea. In other cases, the same terms are used for two different ideas, necessitating a division into two or more qualified business terms and definitions.
See the companion webinar at: http://embt.co/1uHXmjv
The ever-growing interest in data accumulation from multiple sources and organizations for reporting and analysis exposes a dirty secret: those business terms that we all think we understand actually have a wide variety of definitions. Sometimes these variances are largely irrelevant, and do not significantly impact the ability to create a reasonable report. However, there are some instances in which even minor variations in structure, content, or semantics can have a significant impact in delivering trustworthy results.
This leads to the question: if we have two different structures or definitions for what appear to be two similar concepts, should we harmonize the definitions and structures into one? In some cases this will be a good idea, and it will lead to increased consistency, but this is only true as long as the two concepts really refer to the same real-world idea. In other cases, the same terms are used for two different ideas, necessitating a division into two or more qualified business terms and definitions.
