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Vol. I · No. 251
Mon · 8 Jun
A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data
The Lexicon

005·14

canonical data model

/kəˈnɒn.ɪ.kəl ˈdeɪ.tə ˈmɒd.əl/ - n.

1 [colloq.] The one true model every system maps to, plus the per-system exceptions that quietly restore the chaos it replaced.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. A single agreed representation of a business concept that systems translate to and from, so integrations share one definition rather than negotiating pairwise.

Promoted
See also
  • conformed dimensionA dimension every department agreed to share, then quietly forked the moment the meeting ended.
  • master dataThe handful of nouns the entire company depends on and no single function will admit it owns.
  • semantic modelThe layer where the business finally agrees what 'revenue' means, defined four times to match four dashboards.
  • single source of truthTerm struck pending the definitions of ownership, metric, and certification it depends on; without them the source is single but the truth is plural.