IBM Information Server, Version 8.1The role of IBM® Information Server FastTrack is to track and automate efforts spanning multiple data integration tasks from analysis to code generation, thereby shortening the time from business requirements to solution implementation.
IBM Information Server FastTrack simplifies and improves the communication process between the business analyst and the developer. IBM Information Server, together with IBM Information Server FastTrack, automates the information flow between the analyst, whose job is to translate business requirements into a set of specifications for the team to act on, and the developer, whose job is to implement these requirements and produce a data integration application. Among other ways, IBM Information Server FastTrack does this by converting a Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet into an IBM WebSphere® DataStage® and QualityStage™ Designer job, which displays graphical representations of source-to-target mappings. For the developer, turning a partially completed job that includes specific instructions for completion into a finished application takes less time and is more efficient than turning a spreadsheet into the same application.
Business analysts often are required to create or leverage a common set of definitions to ensure consistency in terminology across multiple development teams. Analysts might start from scratch to describe these definitions. Alternatively, if corporate business terms have already been defined externally or the IBM Industry Data Models are being leveraged to accelerate project development work, this business information might be imported into IBM WebSphere Business Glossary and leveraged directly within IBM Information Server FastTrack.
Rather than just creating a common set of definitions, the analyst can fully exploit existing and newly created business terms by linking each business term to the physical structures to reveal a comprehensive relationship. The full lineage of business-to-technical metadata can then be published to WebSphere Business Glossary and accessed by users with the appropriate permissions.
The automated process creates reusable artifacts that are stored in the metadata repository and are accessible to authorized staff members, thereby enhancing the auditability and security of integration projects. The audit trail can be followed and questions about historical decisions can be answered.
Security roles are maintained throughout this development process; for example, users need to be specifically assigned privileges to see or modify IBM WebSphere Business Glossary or profile data sources with WebSphere Information Analyzer.
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