Re: thoughts on "manufactured data"

Nolan wrote:
> A client with which I'm working has a dictum that "thou shalt not
> manufacture data"; which means we are forced to pull in bad data
> against all sane advice to the contrary.
>

 I have faced similar situations. Two ideas:

ONE: It may be extra programming work for you, but I have gotten compromise by keeping a "verified" data table and a "questionable" data table. It can effectively double your work and lead to accounting nightmares, but as they say; the customer is always right...

TWO: Another solution is to create triggers that insert any records with missing foreign keys in the remote tables- This was one of the bells and whistles of the "Red Brick" data warehouse product back in the early 90's when data warehousing as a real hot ticket - it would absolutely insert ANYTHING, ... AND enforce referential integrigty by inserting a record with a foreign key-

 Usually, if it's a reasonable person, you do a great service for the client by trying approach one- dirty data usually points out sloppy business practices, which increases your worth to your client. Keeping the dirty data "quarrantined" allows others in the business to look at it and see what the heck is happening.

k.c Received on Mon Mar 28 2005 - 21:08:25 CEST