If you just happened to enter the data warehouse profession, you will find an almost bewildering choice of technologies, all of which purport to be data warehouse technologies. Indeed, the world of data warehousing is complex and there are many facets. And it seems that each facet of data warehousing has its own technology.

Information should be managed over its product life cycle in the same way as a successful physical product. With a physical product, modification and improvement at different stages of a product’s life cycle ensures that the product remains competitive in the market. The extent of the changes and the time interval between changes depend on the nature of the product, the need it satisfies, and the competitive environment in which it is sold. So it is with information. The degree and frequency of changes to information products depend on the type and nature of the information, the tasks the information supports, and the changing context in which the information is used.

In order to have a successful Enterprise Information Management (EIM) program companies need to ensure that they are properly executing the fundamental building blocks of these initiatives. The basic building blocks of EIM are Meta Data Management, Data Governance and the EIM Organization.

You went to the TDWI, DAMA, Data Governance Conference, International Oracle Users Group, Teradata Partners, or International DB2 Users Group and there were some wonderful presentations, excellent best practices exposed, great opportunities for new tools or more effective use of the tools you already have. In addition you have many of your own ideas and you know how to implement some of these ideas but if you can’t sell them to management, they are just ideas that will find no home. How will you present those jewels in a way that will resonate with your bosses?

At the highest level, data governance is concerned with the management of data – its availability, currency, usefulness, accuracy and relationships with other enterprise data. Governance of data is not an IT function, although many technical products and tools are used to administer governance. Data governance is a business responsibility, shared with IT but “owned” by the business entity and instituted across the enterprise.

Computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools, introduced in the 1970s, were among the first commercial tools to offer meta data services. CASE tools greatly aid the process of designing databases and software applications; they also store data about the data they manage.