Data Dictionary

Owned by Saparnell
Last updated: Aug 25, 2022
3 min read

What a Data Dictionary

The Data Dictionary (AKA Information Governance Catalog IGC) is an authoritative dictionary of glossary and information assets defined by the UC San Diego Data Governance Committee. It is a tool enabling creation, management, and sharing of vocabulary, business terms and related data attributes within a centralized catalog. The IGC supports the understanding of data asset business definitions and allows users to shop for data by searching for information that is meaningful to their department or area. Users can establish collections of assets and run lineage reports to examine data flow between assets.

Users can search the IGC for field names or link directly from Cognos (automatic) and Tableau.

Access

The Information Governance Catalog (IGC) is automatically available to all active employees (AD Group = Active Employee), ITS students and ITS consultants.  If your department's student workers, consultants or contracts would like access to the IGC, please email busintel@ucsd.edu with the name of the appropriate Active Directory (AD) group that will need access.

How to Use the Data Dictionary

Cognos integration

Coming soon.

Adding a Link to Tableau

Coming soon.

Data Dictionary Search

There are multiple ways to search in the IGC.  Don't forget to check out the Search Options menu.

Data Dictionary Categories

Coming soon.

Term Details

Term Details include the following:

  • Name = this is the field name see in the Activity Hubs
  • Short Description
  • Long Description = this is the business definition for the field
  • Parent Category = this is the folder in the Activity Hub where you will find the field
  • Labels = this is the Activity Hub that you will find the term in, there may be more than one
  • Stewards = this is the Data Steward or a delegate of the Data Steward who approved the business definition
  • Status = not applicable, will be removed
  • Governed by Rules = UCOP Protection Level Classification
  • Example = Example of what data will be displayed when the field is used
  • Related Terms = Fields related to this term

Data Dictionary Update Process

1) Request

Requests or modifications can be emailed to busintel@ucsd.edu with the populated Template seen below.  New data being added to an Activity Hub are automatically added to the list of terms to be added to the data dictionary.

2) Define

Each Activity Hub has a Data Definitions Committee or equivalent work group that meet to discuss Term Field Names and Definitions.  Subject matter experts from across UCSD are invited as needed or as regular member in order to provide feedback.

/wiki/spaces/FinAH/pages/53609230

/wiki/spaces/SAH/pages/18354378

3) Format

The IGC requires a very specific CSV file layout: Template.csv.  Header columns must be present and in the format from the template but are not all required to be populated.

  • TERM NAME = required

  • PARENT CATEGORY = required, must be separated by >>

  • STEWARD = required, username

  • SHORT DESCRIPTION = optional

  • LONG DESCRIPTION = required

  • USAGE = optional

  • EXAMPLE = optional but highly recommended

  • STATUS = optional

  • ABBREVIATION 1 = optional

  • ABBREVIATION 2 = optional

  • IS MODIFIER = optional

  • TYPE = optional

  • LABEL = required

  • GOVERNED BY RULES = required

If you have any questions while filling out the template please email busintel@ucsd.edu.

4) Upload

Email busintel@ucsd.edu with your populated Template from #3 to request your terms be uploaded to the IGC. 

  • Terms that are ready for the IGC have been pre-approved and will NOT need to be edited once in the IGC. 
  • Editing in the IGC is extremely time consuming and painful.
  • Requests that are not formatted per the above Template will be sent back to the user.

5) Approve and Publish

IGC requires that terms added to the IGC are approved by a business user with knowledge of the data, either the Data Steward of a delegate of the data steward.