Data Investigation/Data Re-Engineering Technology Selection QuickScan

From MIKE2 Methodology

Data Investigation/Data Re-Engineering Technology Selection QuickScan lists out some of the key capabilities expected from Foundation Capabilities for Information Development product so that objective decisions can be made on the appropriate product to be used.

This tool can be used throughout the architectural process to provide comparative analysis of technology products. IT should be used during Phase 2 of the MIKE2.0 Methodology. It has initially been created for comparison against Foundation Capabilities of the SAFE Architecture but will be extended over time.

Assessment Approach

The assessment is answered by scoring each product against the assessment questions below. Scoring can be done at a team level or by a number of individuals; the assessment should be done individually for each product.

The scoring model is simple:

• Answers are based on multiples of 2:

• For capability rating:
  • 1 = No and not planned
  • 2 = No, in a future release
  • 3 = Yes, but has major issues
  • 4 = Yes, but has minor issues
  • 5 = Yes, ideally meets requirements

• For importance weighting a multiplier is used:
  • 0 = no relevance
  • .5 = somewhat important
  • 1 = important
  • 2 = very important

These questions provide a 'starter set' to be used by project implementation teams.

Issues with the Approach

Clearly a wiki is not the appropriate technology to conduct an assessment. The purpose of putting content into this form was to initially gather some feedback and to drive reviews of open source products in relation to commercially available solutions.

The goal will be to move the assessment questions into a web-based model as has been done with Information Maturity QuickScan although the preference would be to create an Open Source Assessment Framework.

Assessment Questions

Listed below are the assessment questions in the tool.

Factors	Categories	Criteria	Score	Importance	Comments
Architecture	Access	Does the tool handle concurrent usage on overlapping data sets?
	Access	Does the tool function in a c/s fashion using a shared repository?
	Access	Does the tool allow repository access by 3rd party products?
	Convergence	Can the same tool be used for Investigation and Re-Engineering?
	Convergence	Do outputs feed directly into a metadata repository?
	Convergence	What is the level of integration to an ETL tool?
	Convergence	Can jobs be operationalised as part of the ETL process?
	Scalability	Does the tool offer support for parallel processing?
	Scalability	Can the tool support projected 3-year business growth volumes?
Automation	Scheduling	Can reports be sent automatically to specific users?
	Scheduling	Can a job be set to run at specific times through the tool?
	Scheduling	Can multiple jobs be brought together in an overall process?
	Scheduling	Can the tool be used entirely through the GUI, without scripting?
	Monitoring	Can investigation rules be set monitor in an ongoing fashion?
	Monitoring	Can rules be easily transferred for ongoing monitoring?
Data Extraction	Input Formats	Does the tool support the required input file formats?
	Input Formats	Can the tool source non-relational data?
	Input Formats	Can the tool source data models such as E-R diagrams?
	Integration	Does the tool support connectivity to required data sources?
	Integration	Does the tool provide adapters to interface application tier?
	Filtering	Can conditional filters be applied for profiling?
	Filtering	Does the tool provide flexibility to handle different sample sizes?
Data Investigation	Column Profiling	How is the tool at investigating simple domain fields?
	Column Profiling	How is the tool at investigating data patterns within fields?
	Column Profiling	How is the tool at investigating complex, free-form fields?
	Table Profiling	How is the tool at identifying multiple columns with similar values?
	Table Profiling	How is the tool at identifying dependencies across columns?
	Table Profiling	How is the tool at identifying PK candidates?
	M-Table Profiling	How is the tool at analysing PK/FK relationships?
	M-Table Profiling	How is the tool at identifying orphan records?
	M-Table Profiling	Can the tool automatically discover joins between entities?
	M-Table Profiling	Can the tool build joins without physicalising the results?
	Business Rules	Can the tool apply, save and edit business rules for validation?
	Business Rules	Can the tool measure compliance against pre-defined rules?
	Advanced Features	Does the tool provide a set of out-of-the box profiling metrics?
	Advanced Features	Can the tool directly create a normalised data structure?
	Advanced Features	Can a result-set be ’ bookmarked ’ for later investigation?
	Advanced Features	Can thresholds be set for anomoly notifcation?
	Advanced Features	Does the tool provide ’ drill-down ’ from source record sets?
Data Re-Engineering	Standardisation	Is the tool designed for re-engineering complex fields?
	Standardisation	Can the tool parse free-text local/foreign addresses into atomic fields?
	Correction	Does the tool have dbor ref data (e.g. customer/address)?
	Matching	Can linkages be formed against disparate records?
	Matching	Can this tool create "clusters" of similar Soundex attributes?
	Enrichment	Does the tool have Australia Post Address AMAS certification?
	Enrichment	Can the tool attach Australia Post barcodes?
	Enrichment	Does the tool provide 3rd party enrichment data?
Data Quality Reporting	Visualisation	Can the tool provide a graphical display (e.g. pie charts, graphs)
	Visualisation	Can the tool produce color-code reports?
	Visualisation	Can the tool present information into a dashboard view?
	Reporting Content	Is there control within the tool around report name creation?
	Reporting Content	Can the reports from the tool be customised?
	Reporting Content	Can reports be produced in multiple formats (e.g. HTML, text)?
	Reporting Content	Does the tool offer a number of out-of-the box reports?
	Reporting Content	Does the tool allow out-of-the box reports to be customised?
	Reporting Content	Can anomalous issues be presented in a logical/ordered fashion?
Operations	Usability	Is the GUI "user friendly" and intuitive?
	Usability	Can the tool be readily used by business and technical users?
	Deploy	Does the tool provide simple, wizard-driven installation?
	Deploy	Does the tool provide comprehensive help files?
	Deploy	Does the tool provide a comprehensive install guide?
	Deploy	Does the tool support running on the client ’ s SOE platforms?
	Manage	Does the tool offer version control?
	Manage	Is there a mechanism to version-manage discrete components?
	Manage	Is there a way to migrate between vendors (open standards)?
	Manage	Is there a well-defined migration path between product releases?
	Manage	Does the tool provide a mechanism for backup and recovery?
	Manage	Does the tool offer logging/debuging functionality?
Product Profile	Risk	Is the organisation responsible for the product well-placed in the global market?
	Risk	Does the organisation have a strong financial position?
	Risk	Is there a good relationship with the makes of the product in the organisation?
	Risk	Is the product code available in an open source form?
	Execution	Is the product in a state of maturity and widely used in the marketplace?
	Vision	Does the organisation responsible for development have a product development vision?
	Vision	Is this product undergoing continual improvement and development?
	Skills	Does the product offer support with an active support forum?
	Skills	Are there sufficient skills in the local market for the product?
	Skills	Are there skills in the company with the product?
	Cost	What is the estimated price of the product set?