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MDM Maturity Levels 99

We will now look at these two points.

5.3.3.1. Enterprise Architecture

Business objects and their lifecycles are not specific to
MDM; they are the same as for transactional data. The
coherence of the MDM system with the transactional data
models is maintained by the re-use of a common foundation,
which is based on the business objects and their lifecycles.
We will see, in the section dedicated to method, that there
exist two other common concepts between reference and
transactional data: these are the grouping of business objects
by “Data Category” and then at a higher level, by “Business
object domains”.

If the common foundation is successful, the modeling
required for the overhaul of the transactional data will be
based on that of the MDM system. The modeling of reference
and master data, when it is achieved with the level of
maturity of a semantic MDM system, is a springboard for the
subsequent overhaul of IT systems.

5.3.3.2. Integration of MDM with the rest of the system
Data managed by an MDM system has to be synchronized
with existing databases as long as these have not been
redeveloped. This raises questions: is it necessary to update
the silos databases with each MDM update? Should these
updates be grouped together and, if so, following what
criteria?

The states of business objects help to find the correct
answer. Indeed, the synchronization of the data is carried
out by taking advantage of the business objects’ states.
Rather than each update in the MDM system generating an
update in the existing systems, several data updates can be
grouped together and submitted when the business objects’
states change.