Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth

CHAPTER 5

Customer Data Integration Is Different: A CDI Development Framework

One of the biggest barriers to customer data integration (CDI) success is the assumption that a CDI hub can be delivered like any other database. CDI development differs from the implementation frameworks that have been sanctioned for other types of systems, be they operational systems or analytic platforms.

Indeed, CDI represents a combination of different IT development best practices, encompassing the source system analysis and data profiling so important to business intelligence implementations with complex functional specifications common to operational system construction. Thus, a CDI-specific development method ensures that the processing needs and data complexity are supported during construction. A specialized approach to CDI development reduces risk, ensuring that specific steps are followed and thereby preventing the “we didn’t think about . . .” discoveries so common to other enterprise-level development efforts. Companies new to CDI might fall into the trap of using their standard development life-cycles for CDI. But CDI implementation involves some unique considerations that should inform project planning, staffing, and time frames.

Nevertheless, some of the tasks described in this chapter will be very familiar to project managers and developers. As we’ll see, the steps in CDI implementation can leverage the tools and skill sets your organization already has. It’s a matter of making ...