Purpose
A Data Dictionary is used to standardize a definition of a data element and enable a common interpretation of data elements.
Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®)
The term data dictionary is defined as the centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationship with other data, usage, and format. It indicate the general software utility than a catalogue. It provides the information stored regarding the data and allow the software to access the various modules of data. The software package of a stand alone data dictionary interact with the software modules and it is used by the designers, users, and administrators of the computer system for information resource management. It will maintain the information of data on system hardware and software configuration, documentation, application, and users as well as other information relevant to system administration. The data dictionary is updated first and as a result the changes are updated automatically.
Data dictionary are sometimes referred to as a meta data repositories and are used to manage the data within the context of the solution. It is used to document standard definition of data elements, their meanings, and allowable values. As many organizations adopt data mining and more advanced analytic, a data dictionary provide the meta data required in the complex scenarios of the business. The data dictionary contains the definition of each data element and indicate how those elements combine into composite data elements. It is often used in conjunction with an entity relationship diagram and the data are extracted from the data model. It is used to standardize the data elements and their meanings between the solutions and the stakeholders.
Some of the articles related to Data Dictionary techniques are as follows,
https://db.grussell.org/resources/pdf/Data%20Dictionary.pdf
The data dictionary can be manually created by using the data element and the information are provided. The template contains the name of the data, alias name of data, value of elements, and the detailed description of the data element. The main elements of data dictionary are primitive data and composite data elements. It will describe the data element characteristics including the description of data element in the form of definition that will be used by the stakeholders. The composite data elements consists of the sequences, repetitions, and optional elements.
Advantages of using Data Dictionary are,
Some of the books for Data Dictionary techniques,