On Sep 11, 2013, at 4:23 PM, Kingsley Idehen wrote:
At the very least, you have a system that ultimately maps the literal identifier "M0760" to its specific system meaning, right?
Define "system." :-)
Tends to be a fairly foggy concept in legacy systems. Is that one system or six?
Always set the "Six Blind Men & the Elephant" context switch when stepping on to this merry-go-round.
As I've likely said... I first became interested in this issue in 1980 at a life insurance company that had loaded a data dictionary (aka metadata repository in current jargon) with their systems artifacts & found some 70 different names for the core concept "policy number."
Basic business/underwriting issue... "just how many policies has Mr Idehen bought from us?" Easy question to ask... rather more difficult to answer accurately & consistently.
Somehow I don't sense this issue—what are ALL the names for the concept policy number—resonates with the SW domain.