Data Description Guidelines
Guidance for a selection of guidance documents to support description of data.
Issued by: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Issue Date: September 09, 2020
This page contains a selection of guidance documents to support description of data. Data that is clearly, simply and consistently described (named and defined) is much easier for data consumers to identify, understand, use and share. Data models provide a graphical approach to describing data and can come in a variety of forms.
Guideline | Description |
Data Naming | Naming data components by applying guidelines consistently makes it easier for users who aren’t familiar with said components to identify, understand, use or re-use, and benefit from them. |
Data Definition | Defining data components by applying guidelines consistently makes it easier for users who aren’t familiar with said components to understand, use or re-use, and benefit from them. |
Business Glossary | Business glossaries provide clear definitions, accessible across an enterprise to technical and non-technical stakeholders alike, in order to keep terms consistent and help all stakeholders stay on the same page. Guideline includes a quick reference guide and Excel template. |
Data Dictionary | Data dictionaries provides valuable definitions for the data and help users understand any dataset before diving into it. That makes them an essential communications tool for data modeling, curation, governance, and analytics, especially when dealing with datasets that have been collected, compiled, categorized, used, and reused by different people across the organization. Guideline includes a quick reference guide and Excel template. |
Data Catalog | A data catalog is a collection of metadata, combined with data management and search tools that helps data consumers find the data that they need. The data catalog serves as an inventory of available data and provides information to evaluate the fitness of data for intended uses. |
Reading Data Models | A data model shows a data set’s structure, including the relationships and constraints that determine how data can be stored and accessed. Guideline includes a quick reference guide targeted at how to interpret essential components of a data model. |
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DISCLAIMER: The contents of this database lack the force and effect of law, except as authorized by law (including Medicare Advantage Rate Announcements and Advance Notices) or as specifically incorporated into a contract. The Department may not cite, use, or rely on any guidance that is not posted on the guidance repository, except to establish historical facts.