Business Intelligence Network business intelligence resources

Blog: David Loshin

« TDWI Orlando | Main | Open Source Conundrum »

Curious MDM Activity, and Differentiating between Master and Reference Data

Last week at the TDWI conference in orlando, I had the chance to briefly chat with Phillip Russom, who has assembled some very nice research papers this year on data quality and on master data management. One comment about his latest effort on MDM that I found intriguing was that his research suggested that a large number of MDM projects are done on behalf of finance activities, often in the area of accounting (GL, chart of accounts, item lists, etc.). I thought a large part of that data was what we might call "reference data," not necessarily "master data." One the one hand, it is good to see that the kinds of governance that are relevant for financial activities being applied to data.

However, his comment drives back to a question I must have heard 10 times down there - what is the difference between master data and reference data? This underlies an even more challenging question - how do you define "master data"? We have a lot of descriptions of master data, but nothing definitive. Dan Linstedt has done a good job of tracking some of these questions in his blog, but I think it is about time to nail this definition down. Any suggestions?

  Posted by David Loshin on November 13, 2006 8:09 AM |

Comments

Master data exists, even when it isn’t being used for reference; reference data only exists in the act of referring...

Posted by: Nathan Jones | December 4, 2006 2:49 PM

One way you can differentiate is based on the nature of the entities: master data is operational (closely related to business transactions), whereas reference data is structural (more for corporate planning, analysis, or reporting).

Posted by: Charlie Hendrawan | December 7, 2006 6:22 AM

Interesting comments, both. I like Nathan's because it establishes the notion that the names we use to describe master data are essentially irrelevant, as are the systems we employ to manage it. However, one might not benefit the organization by ignoring the existence of master data.

On the other hand, Charlie, when I spoke with Phil about his MDM study, he told me that a large part of the master data being managed was financial data (chart of accounts, items, etc.). Also, I have had conversations with folks whose intention is to integrate the results of analytics as part of their master data repository (e.g., customer profiles are attributes of the master customer records). So perhaps using the "operational" distinction may still be a fuzzy line.

Posted by: David Loshin | December 7, 2006 6:31 AM

Respected Mr. Loshin,
I have one question for you. What do You think about MDM classification. I`m writting work about MDM products market, I hope You would be so kind to answer me.

Posted by: Maria | March 29, 2007 3:47 AM

Post a comment