THE SIGNIFICANT ROLE

OF METADATA

WHY METADATA IS IMPORTANT

Metadata in a data warehouse contains the answers to
questions about the data in the data warehouse.
sample list of definitions:

Data about the data

Table of contents for the data
Catalog for the data
Data warehouse atlas
Data warehouse roadmap
Data warehouse directory
Glue that holds the data warehouse contents together
Tongs to handle the data
The nerve center

Ex : Use of metadata
which territories does region SOUTH
include?
does the data item 04-01-2000 denote
April 1, 2000 or January 4, 2000? What
is the convention used for dates in your
data warehouse?
Are the numbers shown as sale units
given in physical units of the products,
or in some measure such as pounds or
kilograms?
What about the amounts shown in the
result set? Are these amounts in dollars
or in some other currency?
Metadata gives your user the meaning
of each data element.