In-Depth

Best practices: Meta data integration

It is not all about technology, of course; how you manage your meta data is even more important than what you use to collect it. Here are some tips from Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn.:

• Motivate developers to document and make available to others the touchpoints they implement.

• Motivate developers to reuse touchpoints, rather than build their own.

• Implement tools and techniques to allow developers to find previously developed touchpoints.

• Begin an integration competency center to build developer techniques, share best practices across the company, and to create a repository that developers can tap into for reuse.

• Do not document every existing system; that will take too long. Instead, include in the integration repository only those applications that will be modified or used as part of a new project.

Please see the following related stories:
“The next step for meta data: Application integration” by Johanna Ambrosio


“What integration meta data should you collect?” by Johanna Ambrosio


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About the Author

Johanna Ambrosio is a freelance writer based in Marlborough, Mass., specializing in technology and business. Contact her at [email protected].