Establishing Enterprise Data Standards

Enterprise data standards are part of the larger, broader “enterprise development standards” category, which includes topics as development approach, walkthrough procedures, and coding conventions. This chapter focuses on establishing enterprise data standards. Data exists within organizations in a variety of formats, some of which include: documents, databases, flat files, paper documents, binary objects, voice, and video. Data is everywhere, and its value is in a constant state of flux, either being modified, deleted, changed, or manipulated in some way. The predominant case includes three tiers, namely, user interface tier, data tier, and the business logic tier. Enterprise data standards are required to support both operational and development groups within an organization. There are several common pitfalls and traps that can befall an organization trying to establish enterprise data standards. Enterprise data standards should be used by organizations that are building and maintaining nontrivial application systems.