Lycanthropy, Silver Bullets, and Master Data Management

Apr 27, 2011 by Jim Harris in Master Data Management

Lycanthropy is the ability of a human being to transform into a werewolf, a legendary beast possessing superhuman strength and senses – but also a cruel and inhumane thirst for brutal violence. The most common cause of lycanthropy is for a human to be bitten by a werewolf, after which its first, and all subsequent, transformations into a werewolf will only occur during a full moon. 

According to the myth, a werewolf can only be killed by a silver bullet, a legendary technology, which has become a metaphor for any simple solution to a complex problem.

Master data management (MDM) also has many of its own myths and legends (perhaps most notably The Quest for the Golden Copy), including its own form of lycanthropy, wherein although it is the humans who are bitten, they are not the ones who transform. MDM is often transformed into a legendary beast when its implementation complexity is revealed (perhaps by the light of a full moon). When we allow an MDM implementation to morph into a monster, we start believing in the magic of finding a legendary technology — we start believing a silver bullet is the only thing that can save us.

David Loshin has recently blogged about the big boom risks of taking a big bang approach by firing a silver bullet at MDM (i.e., when MDM is driven by technology acquisition and deployment). As David explained in a subsequent blog post, when “the technology has been positioned as a silver bullet solution, the general expectation is that the result of an MDM project is complete visibility into all aspects of the selected master data domain (e.g., customer or product). However, the goal is to identify what master data is needed and how it is used to meet a specified business goal. Then figure out a plan for technology acquisition in support of the business process improvement.”

Although an MDM implementation is a complex challenge, it’s not a legendary beast that can only be killed by a legendary technology. There is simply no silver bullet for MDM — and that’s no myth.

Tags: Master Data Management