Direction for Data Resource Management (DRM) and Database

Direction for Data Resource Management (DRM)

What is the future for data resource management? Considering the past practices and the current data resource situation in most public and private sector organizations, is a new direction needed for developing and managing the data resource? Is a new orientation toward improved data resource quality and increased business support needed?

Data administration has not been an effective way to manage an organization’s data resource. People have tried to administer the data with an orientation toward the data, rather than towards support of the business.

Many organizations have been, and still are, oriented toward the technology aspect of information technology by trying every new technology that comes along hoping that it will help them administer the data and provide better business support. They are looking for that elusive silver bullet and are sacrificing future business support for current needs.

A new direction is needed that focuses on managing data as a critical resource of the organization to directly support its business activities. The data resource must be managed with the same intensity and formality that other critical resources are managed.

Organizations must emphasize the information aspect of information technology, determine the data needed to support the business, and then use appropriate technology to build and maintain a high-quality data resource that provides that support.

In other words, organizations must manage data as a resource rather than administer the data.

Database

A Database (DB) is structure that can store information about

Multiple types of entities,

The attributes that describe those entities; and

The relationships among the entities

An integrated, self-describing collection of related data

Integrated Data is stored in a uniform way, typically all in one place (a single physical computer for example)

Self-Describing A database maintains a description of the data it contains (Catalog)

Related Data has some relationship to other data. In a University we have students who take courses taught by professors

By taking advantage of relationships and integration, we can provide information to users as opposed to simply data.

We can also say that the database is a model of what the users perceive.

Three main categories of models

User or Conceptual Models How users perceive the world and/or the business.

Logical Models Represent the logic of how a business operates.

For example, the relationship between different entities and the flow of data through the organization.

Based on the User’s model Physical Models Represent how the database is actually implemented on a computer system. This is based on the logical model.