Microsoft SQL Server 2012
MASTER DATA SERVICES
Second Edition
About the Author
Tyler Graham is Director of Industry Solutions for the Profisee Group. He moved to Profisee after completing the latest release of Master Data Services as a Senior Program Manager for Microsoft. He has spent over ten years in the data management space and is a frequent speaker at conferences. When he is not working on learning new industry, he is skiing, swimming, or hiking with his family.
About the Technical Editor
Lynn Gasch has worked in software development and testing for more than ten years. After completing degrees in computer science and mathematics at Virginia Tech, she hired on at a small Seattle office focused on artificial intelligence research, and tackled projects in diverse areas such as computer-based education, network monitoring and security, data mining, and information retrieval. She joined Microsoft four years ago and is currently a member of the SQL Server Master Data Services test team. When not working, Lynn and her family enjoy the recreational opportunities of the Pacific Northwest, and she will endeavor to stay off crutches next ski season. Lynns review of this book was based on her own personal opinions, and not in her capacity as a Microsoft employee.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
MASTER DATA SERVICES
Second Edition
Tyler Graham
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Contents
Foreword
I n the last few weeks I have received duplicate mailings from my bank. My doctor confused my records with another patient, also D. Farmer. A carrier delivered a ceiling fan, ordered online, with a remote control that does not match it; and the next day delivered a pair of shoes of the right brand, the right color, the right size, but the wrong model.
I doubt that I am especially unlucky: we have all had similar experiences. The retailers, manufacturers, and service providers on the other side of these mishaps all have something in commonproblems with master data.
That these problems are so familiar is a sign that they are pervasive. And over the years we, in the world of data management, have tried to solve them in many ways. We created reference data sets, but often ended up with multiple reference sets covering the same field confusingly. We built data warehouses to drive reporting and analytics, and thought to use them as our single version of the truth. However, the data warehouse was populated and maintained on a different cycle, and for different purposes, than our line-of-business applications, and the data was not a suitable source for operational use.
In recent years, however, a body of practice has emerged that is aptly named master data management, or MDM. Practitioners dont stop at just compiling a reference data set, but implement architectures, data-driven processes, practices, and policies that oversee the entire lifecycle of data.
Tyler Graham has been at the forefront of this new practice. Tyler has seen the start of the master data management movement as a consultant solving complex issues for enterprise customers. He has also worked on software solutions, with the vendor Stratature, building an agile and effective MDM solution. More recently, Tyler has been at Microsoft building their Master Data Services platform, which brings master data capabilities to every user of the SQL Server database.
