Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth

TOP-DOWN VERSUS BOTTOM-UP

One of the most important decisions a CDI team can make is whether the development approach will be top-down or bottom-up. The term top-down connotes a requirements-driven approach to development, usually involving careful planning, requirements gathering, and group consensusbuilding activities in an effort to understand a superset of business needs that call for a new technology. Top-down development often includes a discussion of aligning individual projects to corporate strategic or business goals.

However, bottom-up development is more tactical and aims to deliver software functionality in a quick and incremental way to satisfy specific and more immediate business needs. It’s light on up-front analysis and group consent, involving a heavy focus on important functions and features that will be initially delivered and then built upon.

The distinction between top-down and bottom-up is an important one for CDI, and should be determined by a number of factors:

• The purpose or goal of CDI

• Who’s driving the CDI initiative

• Who will own the CDI project

• The scope of the business issues that call for CDI functionality

• The level of organizational agreement about the need for CDI

• Whether there’s a business sponsor for CDI

• Whether CDI is the result of executive edict

• Whether CDI is intended to solve a near-term tactical problem or a larger, more strategic set of issues

• The scope of the initial project

A top-down approach is often the assumption ...