The recommendations in this document are relevant for R11.x only and are recommendations, not requirements.
Naming Convention
This page discusses standard data organization. These practices should be followed unless there is a compelling use case that makes following them impossible. Organization of datasets falls into to two areas, categorization and naming of the individual dataset.
Categories
While this will vary greatly from project to project, typically we see datasets that fall into a few main categories: Finance, IT Ops, Services, and Mapping. They also are generally either Raw, Transform, Mapping, Reference or Master Datasets. The recommended dataset groupings are as follows:
| Category | Description |
|---|
| 01 Raw Financial Data | contains raw datasets like GL, Budget, HR, FA |
| 02 Raw Infrastructure Data | contains raw datasets like CMDB, Storage Pools, Application List |
| 03 Raw Business Data | contains raw datasets like Business Units, Apps & Business Services |
| 04 Transform Financial Data | contains transforms of datasets in section 01 |
| 05 Transform Infrastructure | contains transforms of datasets in section 02 |
| 06 Transform Business Data | contains transforms of datasets in section 03 |
| 07 Mapping Data | contains mapping datasets like Server to Apps, Cost Centers to ITRTs |
| 08 Reference Data | contains files that are generally system generated like Cost Center Hierarchy or IT Resource Tower Reference List |
Additional dataset areas, such as for custom work, should be added in sections 09 and beyond. Custom Master Datasets created by a user should generally be put into the corresponding grouping section for that dataset.
It is possible to create new categories and change which category a dataset is in.
Naming
The reasoning for having guidlines for naming is to track the kind of dataset and to identify where we are in the data transform chain.
| Suffix | Description | Examples |
|---|
| RAW | Name of the Raw File with suffix ‘RAW’ without any special characters. Ensure any file that is user uploaded should contain ‘RAW’ as a suffix. | - Cost Source Actuals RAW
- Fixed Assets Register RAW
|
| MAP | Mapping Files - Name of the File contains ‘MAP’ at the end of the file name without using any special characters. Also, ensure that every new mapping file that is uploaded should use ‘RAW’ as a suffix as stated in section | - Fixed Assets to ITRT MAP RAW
- Fixed Assets to ITRT MAP TA
|
| REF | The system generated reference file when extracted from Apptio and uploaded with changes to be used as a reference file, ‘REF’ at the end of file name with ‘RAW’ suffix should be added without using any special characters | - IT Resource Towers List REF RAW
- IT Resource Towers List REF TA
|
T1, T2, T3 V1, V2, V3 TA, TB, TC ... | Transforms should contain suffix that indicates in what order they are created. First transform could be 'T1', 'V1' or 'TA'. A transform of a transform will then be 'T2', 'V2' or 'TB' and so on. Whether 'T1', 'V1' or 'TA' is selected is not important, what is important is that it shows a sequential order. | - Cost Source Actuals T1
- Cost Source Actuals T2
- Cost Source Actuals V1
- Cost Source Actuals V2
- Cost Source Actuals TA
- Cost Source Actuals TB
|
You are not able to rename a dataset once you have named it.
If you have a project with a high number of datasets, you may want to consider extending your naming convention further. Click here to read about the extended naming conventions guidelines.