The following list summarizes the necessary steps to create a good data design:
Develop an understanding of which applications will use your directory initially and in the future.
Create a data policy statement.
Create a data source inventory for your entire organization.
Create a list of the data elements needed by each directory-enabled application.
Characterize each data element according to
- Format
- Size of each value
- Number of distinct values
- Data ownership and restrictions
- Consumers
- Frequency of changes in values (dynamic versus static)
- Range of applicability (shared versus application-specific)
- Relationships with other data elements
Examine the application-specific lists to locate overlap among data elements.
Create a plan for managing the relationships between data sources.