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Are there any industry standards or best practices regarding how to handle vendor solutions specifically pertaining to conformation to an organization's information architecture standards?

Question: Are there any industry standards or best practices regarding how to handle vendor solutions specifically pertaining to conformation to an organization's information architecture standards (data model, data object naming standards, formats, etc.)? Is it reasonable to assume a vendor would alter their product to match our enterprise standards or should we expect that a vendor solution should be treated as a "contained" environment?

Sid Adelman's Answer: It depends on whether you are talking about a software vendor or a consultant. If it's a consultant, they should be following your standards as they help you implement systems. Do not give them a pass (and put it in the contract). If it's a software vendor, there is no chance that they will modify their code to conform to your standards. They have their own data models (we hope), their own naming standards and formats, and it would be unrealistic for you to ask or expect them to conform to your standards.

Clay Rehm's Answer: It is not reasonable to expect a vendor to alter their product to match your enterprise standards. I have seen just the opposite, that organizations modify their standards to allow vender "exceptions." You do have the choice to ask your vendor to make changes, but most likely this will come at an extra cost.

Chuck Kelley's Answer: I would not expect a vendor to alter their product to your enterprise standards. That would cause quite a call center/help desk nightmare. I would expect to treat vendor solutions as a "contained" environment.

Joe Oates' Answer: I think that it would be unrealistic to expect a vendor to modify their product to conform to your standards without paying a heavy consulting fee. You can think of a vendor solution as a "packaged application."

Even though most organizations do some modification to the packaged application, doing such a heavy modification as you suggest is usually deemed too expensive. My advice would be to treat it as a "contained" environment.


Joe Oates is an internationally known speaker, author and consultant on data warehousing. Oates has more than 30 years of experience in the successful management and technical development of business, real-time and data warehouse applications for industry and government clients. He has designed or helped design and implement more than 30 successful data warehouse projects.

Sid Adelman is a principal in Sid Adelman & Associates, an organization specializing in planning and implementing data warehouses, in data warehouse and BI assessments, and in establishing effective data architectures and strategies. He is a regular speaker at DW conferences. Adelman chairs the "Ask the Experts" column on www.dmreview.com. He is a frequent contributor to journals that focus on data warehousing. He co-authored Data Warehouse Project Management and is the principal author on Impossible Data Warehouse Situations with Solutions from the Experts and Data Strategy. He can be reached at (818) 783-9634 or visit his Web site at www.sidadelman.com.

Chuck Kelley is an internationally known expert in database and data warehousing technology. He has 30 years of experience in designing and implementing operational/production systems and data warehouses. Kelley has worked in some facet of the design and implementation phase of more than 50 data warehouses and data marts. He also teaches seminars, co-authored four books on data warehousing and has been published in many trade magazines on database technology, data warehousing and enterprise data strategies. He can be contacted at chuckkelley@usa.net.

Clay Rehm, CCP, PMP, is president of Rehm Technology (www.rehmtech.com), a consulting firm specializing in data integration solutions. Rehm provides hands-on expertise in project management, assessments, methodologies, data modeling, database design, metadata and systems analysis, design and development. He has worked in multiple platforms and his experience spans operational and data warehouse environments. Rehm is a technical book editor and is a co-author of the book, Impossible Data Warehouse Situations with Solutions from the Experts. In addition, he is a Certified Computing Professional (CCP), a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Software Engineering from Carroll College. He can be reached at clay.rehm@rehmtech.com.

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