Authors: Allen Dreibelbis, Eberhard Hechler, Ivan Milman, Martin Oberhofer, Paul Van Run, Dan Wolfson
Publisher: IBM Press (www.ibmpressbooks.com)
Published: June 2008
ISBN-10: 0-13-236625-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-236625-0
Format: Hard cover, 656 pages
Price: $49.99
SOA and the Management of Core Information
The book, "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information", published by IBM Press, represents a comprehensive reference resource that covers all the different aspects of "Master Data Management" (MDM).
In order to successfully discuss MDM though, it is firstly essential to clarify what the term "master data" actually means. In the opening pages of the book, it is explained that this type of data is concerned with "some of the most valuable information that a business owns. It represents core information about the business – such as customers, suppliers, products, and accounts – and the relationships between them. Each of these domains of master data represents information that is needed across different business processes, across organizational units, and between operational systems and decision support systems. In essence, master data defines an enterprise."
While it is important to be clear about the definition of "master data", especially as used in the context of this particular book, the above definition reveals nothing that is startling or even new. So what is of crucial interest then is how "master data" can be managed effectively, given the complex information flow that exists both into and out of, as well as within, today's typical enterprise or larger sized company. And it is for that reason that "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information" has been written. One of the key roles of MDM is to provide flexibility in the use of master data, in light of constantly changing business requirements, regulations, and implementation technologies. It is proposed in the book that "through a combination of architecture, technology, and business processes, MDM provides an approach to incrementally reducing the amount of redundantly managed information and providing information consumers throughout an enterprise with authoritative master data."
The first couple of chapters of "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information" should, in my opinion, be regarded as mandatory reading. The opening chapter is an excellent introduction to the concept of MDM, and provides answers to questions such as what an MDM approach is and why it's urgently needed, along with examples of the sorts of business benefits that can be potentially generated from deploying MDM in an enterprise. The second chapter of the book begins with a brief introduction to SOA and is then followed by an indepth discussion of the relationship between MDM and SOA. The major goal of this chapter is to demonstrate to readers of the book "how MDM and SOA complement each other to achieve the business and IT goals related to managing master data."
Given the comprehensive amount of information that has been put into "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information", it comes as no real surprise to learn that it has involved the work of no less than half a dozen authors. Each of these authors has extensive IT experience ranging from first hand dealings with MDM through to other skills such as complex systems integration, performance optimization and benchmarking, security technology, software development, business integration, and commercial distributed computing.
The remaining content of "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information" has been organized into a further 7 chapters, and they respectively tackle the following aspects of MDM:
1. MDM Reference Architecture (MDM RA): an investigation into the major architectural building blocks, and the relationships between those blocks, and how those blocks can be combined to deliver the required MDM functionality.
2. MDM Security and Privacy: no solution is complete unless the data associated with that solution is protected. This chapter discusses the techniques and safeguards that are required to ensure an enterprise's master data remains both secure and private.
3. MDM Architecture Patterns: In this chapter, the book's authors explain what MDM Architecture Patterns are as well as reveal how they are used to instantiate selected components of the MDM RA to deliver specific solutions.
4. PIM-MDM Solution Blueprints: This chapter introduces the concept of Solution Blueprints and explains the relationships between architecture patterns and business patterns. The focus is on Product Information Management (PIM).
5. CDI-MDM Solution Blueprints: Following on in the same vein as the previous chapter but this time the reader's attention is turned to Customer Data Integration (CDI).
6. MDM Integration Blueprints: This chapter covers what needs to be done in order to successfully integrate a new MDM system into an existing IT environment.
7. MDM and Data Governance: The concept of governance is defined in this chapter as being the manner in which the employees of an enterprise "make and act on decisions about managing a shared resource for the common good." In this chapter, the link between data governance and MDM is investigated and presented.
The last section of the book contains a collection of appendixes. The first appendix introduces and discusses the various user roles that typically emerge within an MDM environment. Also of importance are the relationships that exist between those roles. Just some examples of the many different roles that could be required are a business customizer, a category manager, an item specialist manager, a data integrator, a translator, and a deployer. The next appendix includes the details of various software products that could be used for creating and implementing master data solutions, while the third appendix discusses the different sorts of regulations that can significantly influence how an MDM environment is configured, managed and protected. The fourth appendix consists of comments about MDM associated standards and specifications. If you're new to MDM, you'll find that the fifth, and last appendix – a glossary and terms – is invaluable as you progress through the book. Examples of just some of the terms explained there include MDM Business Blueprints, MDM Coexistence Hub Pattern, MDM Method of Use, and MDM Event Management Services.
If what you've read in this review has piqued your interest in learning more about this particular book, I encourage to go online to the book's publisher, IBM Press (www.ibmpressbooks.com) and read the two forewords to the book, along with its preface, and its opening chapter titled "Introducing Master Data Management". Whilst visiting the publisher's site, I also recommend that you sign up for the monthly IBM Press newsletter. By doing so, you can be kept informed of new titles about MDM, and other associated fields of IT, that are due to be published in the coming months.
The target audience for "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information" encompasses a diverse range of both business people and IT professionals. For example, executives and managers can use the book to either plan for the upcoming use of MDM within their enterprise or as a source of ongoing practical advice for an MDM project that is already underway. Alternatively, IT technicians such as Enterprise Architects, System Architects, Information Architects, Database Administrators, Security Administrators, etc., can use the technical advice and strategies from the book to ensure a successful MDM implementation. And of course, the book should be read by anyone who is new to MDM and who wants to learn about this area of technology and information management as quickly as possible.
Three major benefits delivered by this book to its readers are:
1. An understanding of the importance of MDM.
2. The need for MDM systems.
3. The methods involved in architecting an MDM solution.
If you are still unsure as to the value to be gained from reading "Enterprise Master Data Management: An SOA Approach to Managing Core Information", I believe it is worth pondering the following quote from the Gartner Group that has been included in the text of the book: "You will waste your investment in SOA unless you have enterprise information that SOA can exploit." From my perspective, that quote alone should provide enough incentive to read this book as soon as you can.