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Designing the MDM team for an SAP MDM implementation project

Jill Dyché EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Jill Dyché

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QUESTION POSED ON: 09 March 2009
My company is going live with SAP in the next couple of months. I've been working on the BI side, but have had previous experience in master data, and I've been asked to lead the MDM team. The steering committee understands how important master data is to the SAP project and feels I'm best suited to take on this role.

I'm in the process of trying to fill positions for this department. The person previously responsible for MDM on the SAP team has put together some job descriptions and the plan is to hire two Data Entry Specialists and three Business Analysts. Are these even the right titles? What are key things I should be looking for in applicants? And since I only have a short time to get this done, I'd appreciate any input you can give me.


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Holy smokes, you guys are diving right into the middle of this, huh? I'm going to assume that, like most SAP customers, you'll be using SAP's MDM product. (This is not necessarily a good assumption but it's a safe one.) So your requirements and vendor selection processes are over. I'm also going to assume that there are data contradictions within SAP as well as outside of SAP, so you have multiple systems that will be consuming master data.

In such a situation, I'd want to round out my entire development team as opposed to focusing on the "front-end" as it seems you guys have done. This means you need to consider roles such as:

• MDM administrator: Someone to set up and configure the MDM environment. This probably isn't a full-time job, but it's critical nonetheless.
• MDM project manager: You'll need someone to create and maintain the roadmap of on-boarding systems and communicating progress.
• MDM developers: As good as SAP's MDM solution may be, it's not "off the shelf." You'll need to customize it using the appropriate development skills.

There are also "ancillary" job roles that might already exist. Alternatively, your new MDM effort might provide an ideal context for introducing them. Understand whether your company already has a data management group that's addressing data quality, metadata management, and general data requirements analysis. If you do, rope these people into your MDM effort and leverage their background with data. If not, it's time to go out and build your MDM empire!


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