SUPPORTING TECHNIQUES

Two supporting techniques for the data inventory are data scanners and data profilers. Each of these techniques is described below.

Data Scanning

Data scanning is used primarily for capturing data to be stored in the data resource, such as document scanning, bar code scanning, and so on. However, data scanning also applies to scanning databases to identify the data items that exist in the database, or application programs to identify and document the data items that are used or produced. The scanning does not capture the actual data values—it only captures the data items so they can be properly documented.