CIS 429 Week 4 Assignment 3 The Importance of Metadata (Paper) CIS 429 Week 4 Assignment 3 The Importance of Meta | Page 2

Section 1: Written Report
Imagine that the CIO comes to you with a frustrated look on his face. He has realized that
metadata is a key foundational piece of a data warehouse. He asks you to write a report that
emphasis the importance of metadata, the types of metadata, and the impact of metadata on
the ETL process. He shows you an article that states that faulty metadata will lead to poor
information from the data warehouse. The executive team is eager to move forward but the
risk of faulty metadata is making the CIO apprehensive. He reiterates that the report will be
used to explain metadata to the company’s management team. He reminds you that the team
comprises of technical and nontechnical stakeholders. In your report, you must show why
metadata is a major building block for a data warehouse and how it impacts ETL.
Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you:
List and explain three (3) differences between data dictionaries used in database management
systems and metadata that is used in data warehousing.
Identify three (3) primary reasons why metadata are important in a data warehouse.
List three (3) significant differences between business and technical metadata. Explain why
each difference is relevant.
Identify and explain three (3) significant points that show the impact of metadata on the ETL
process. Be sure to state where in the ETL process the impact would occur.
Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites
do not qualify as quality resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: