ABSTRACT
Mehdi Hatami brings 20 years of IT architecture and project management to bear on the subject of Enterprise Architecture and Data Modeling. In a recent article published in TDWI's Business Intelligence Weekly, he addresses the need many organizations have for an enterprise-wide data strategy to cope with the growing complexity and number of applications that increasing numbers of people within organizations use to generate, store, and maintain valuable company information.
There is great promise in Enterprise Data Modeling, which is the foundation of associated solutions -- Enterprise Data Architecture, Master Data Management, Data Quality, Data Stewardship) -- that together address the challenges posed by heterogeneous systems. This article distinguishes an Enterprise Data Model (EDM) from other Business Information Management solutions and, using generic examples, examines the steps organizations must take to develop an EDM and to take full advantage of its benefits.