Information System Integrati on: A Metadata Management Approach

This paper deal s with the integration and control of organizational information systems. The framework for this integration and control is that of Information Resource Management (IRM) the management not only of information but al so of the processes that specify, generate, di stri bute, and consume information. Within the context of IRM, the concept of metadata -data about data -is introduced. A tool to manage metadata, the Information Resource Dictionary System, is defined and a data model and data architecture are presented for the system. Al so, support tool s to aid in information integration are discussed. Lastly, the Enterprise Administration function is proposed to ensure not only the proper use of the Information Resource Dictionary System but also the impl ementation of corporate i nformation system integration and control policies. INTRODUCTION access to a large, shared database that is managed by a Database ManThe evolution of corporate information agement System (DBMS). In addition, it systems is being influenced by several might have several heterogeneous potentially divisive trends that are applications developed usin distinct application specific. These trends are DBMS on distinct hardware. Decision reshaping the nature and scope of corSupport Systems aid strategic planners porate information systems. In particin solving unstructured problems ular, we are referring to Electronic (Sprague, 1980). Data Processing Systems (EDP), Management Information Systems (MIS), DeAnother important trend is that of cision Support Systems (DSS), Office Office Information Systems, al so Information Systems (OIS), and Percal 1 ed Office Automation Systems. sonal Information Systems (PIS) . These systems are designed to improve office productivity by providing a set EDP Systems and Management Information of tools to support office activities. * Systems address the record-oriented, These tools include word processing transaction-processing, view of the for document preparation, electronic world (Thierauf and Reynolds, 1982). A messaging for mail and document distypical corporation may have several tribution, electronic "spreadsheets" 1 arge-scale appl ications, each having for decision support, and tools for