Information System Construction and Maintenance Based on Business Terminology: Experiences from the Reinsurance Industry

During the construction phase of an information system, business concerns are expressed in the form of a logical data model. From that the physical data model is designed, taking into account IT concerns as well. Systematically managed business terminology, used as the basis for formulating these models, has been claimed to ensure alignment between the business and IT perspective. We are looking back on six years of experience with the Swiss Re Data Language, our standard for information system construction, reuse, and maintenance with respect to master data. Focusing on the needs of analytical information systems, we report about our analysis methodology (which allows for the systematic alignment of business and IT), the organizational embedding (which ensures systematic reuse of reference data), and the practical use of business terminology in data quality management.