Reference Data basics

Important

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Reference data is data used to classify, categorize, structure, or constrain other data. Typically, they are static or slowly changing over time, for example, units of measurement and country codes.

Reference data often includes a known code set, which consists of code values that rarely change. As the name suggests, reference data is designed to be referenced by various other data to create a standard vocabulary and structure across diverse systems and data sources. Some examples of reference data are country codes, language codes, product codes, and account identifiers.

Note Not all systems use the same versions of a code set for the same type of information. This can cause issues when these systems exchange information. For more information and resolution, go to Map code values and crosswalks.

The Reference Data product aims at a systematic approach to manage reference data, including code sets and code values. For example, you can define relations between Code Set assets and Column assets for which they are the allowed values, or between Code Value assets and the Business Assets that they represent. Additionally, you can define complex mappings between them in order to enable crosswalks from one information system to another, considering the differences in the code sets through time.

With all the reference data gathered in a single place, you can build an organization-wide understanding of how your data is organized, classified, and collected.

Example

In the following diagram, you can see that the Customer Information table contains the Address Type column, which can only contain code values from the Address Type Values code set.

Image of the Reference Data page

In this topic

How to open Reference Data

You can open Reference Data if you have the Product Rights > Reference Data Manager global permission. To open Reference Data, on the main toolbar, click → Reference Data.

Reference Data tabs

Reference Data contains the following tabs.

Tab	Description
Code Value / Sets	A table with all Code Value and Code Set assets.
Metrics	A variety of statistics related to how the assets are used.
Hierarchies	A table with all Hierarchies domains.

Reference Data lifecycle

Reference data is relatively easy to govern because it concerns predictable data. Often, the code sets are related to the assets in Business Glossary. The process of managing reference data in Collibra Platform generally involves the following phases.

Phase

Description

1. Create

Gather all existing reference data content, analyze it, and enter the relevant parts in Collibra Platform as Code Set and Code Value assets. We recommend that you use a specific Codelist domain for each code set.

Tip You can create the assets manually, but usually it is easier to use the import functionality to enter thousands of assets at the same time.

To describe the code set completely, you can create relations between the Code Set and Code Value assets, as well as other relevant assets.

Relation type	Head assets	Tail assets	Description
Code Value is part of / contains Code Set	Code Value assets	Code Set asset	Relations of this type link the Code Value assets to the corresponding Code Set asset.
Business Term has code / is code for Code Value	Business Term asset	Code Value asset	Relations of this type link Business Term assets to Code Value assets to provide more information about the meaning of the Code Value asset.
Data Element allowed value set / applies to Code Set	Column asset	Code Set asset	Relations of this type describe which code set is used to restrict the possible values of a column.
Data Element allowed value / allowed value for Code Value	Column asset	Code Value asset	Relations of this type describe the actual code values that are used in a column.

The outcome consists of Code Set and Code Value assets, organized in different Codelist domains. The assets can have relations to other assets and still have the Candidate status.

2. Complete

Create responsibilities by assigning users or user groups to roles for the respective Codelist domains:

The DataStewards improve the bulk import and prepare it for review. They also hold the ultimate decision-making authority in the approval process.
Subject Matter Experts review the correctness of the assets.
The Stakeholders comment on the assets and validate the correctness.

Use the Approval and Simple Approval workflows to update and approve the Code Set and Code Value assets.

The outcome consists of Code Set and Code Value assets with the Approved status.

3. Map

The DataStewards map code values and crosswalks between corresponding Code Value assets. A Crosswalk asset may have additional attributes to describe the transformation logic. Often, this transformation logic is hidden or implicit.

The Crosswalk assets originally also have the Candidate status. Therefore, they should also be reviewed and approved via the Approval and Simple Approval workflows.

4. Publish and trace

After you have created the required assets and added the required relations, you can use diagrams to trace the lineage.

The approved code values can also be provided to the business users in different ways:

You can export them to an XLSX or CSV file using Collibra workflows. However, this file will be attached to a community or domain within Collibra.
You can use the Collibra APIs to pull information from Collibra via external orchestrators, ETL tools, or programming languages.

To indicate that the code sets are published, you can create a status, for example, Published.

5. Use and maintain

Finally, the business users use the published code sets in their own applications, for example, in reporting software.

Typically, there will be inconsistencies or incompleteness in the code sets. These issues can be reported, which starts a workflow to fix the issue.