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The tool was introduced with the Information Server and is available in the 8.1 version.
As the name suggests IBM are using it to help in the analysis and design stage of a data
integration project to do the source to target mapping and the definition of the transform rules.
Since it is an Information Server product it runs against the Metadata Server and can share
metadata with the other products and it can run inside a browser.
I have talked about it previously in New Product: IBM FastTrack for Source To Target
Mapping and FastTrack Excel out of your DataStage project but now I have had the chance to see it in
action on a Data Warehouse project. We have been using the tool for a few weeks now and we
are impressed. It’s been easier to learn than other Information Server products and it manages to
fit most of what you need inside frames on a single browse screen. Very few bugs and it has
been in the hands of someone who doesn’t know a lot about DataStage and they have been able
to complete mappings and generate DataStage jobs.
I hope to get some screenshots up in the weeks to come but here are some observations in how
we have saved time with FastTrack:
1. Better bulk export and import functions – preferably XML and Excel. Excel for when we
produce documentation. XML for when we want to back it up or move it between
repositories. (Or export, run a search and replace to globally rename a transform value
and import it again).
2. Global search and replace on transformation values, similar to the search and replace in
the DataStage Transformer, for globally renaming things like function names and job
parameter values.
3. More DataStage stages – it currently lets you configure settings for Lookup, Join,
Connectors and Transformers. Would like to see Surrogate Key, Change Data Capture
and Slowly Changing Dimension support – though it’s debatable whether those are
business analyst functions for FastTrack or developer functions for DataStage. It would
be cool to define Type 1 Type 2 and key fields for dimension table mapping.
4. Let you run Discover and Best Match on Business Glossary terms so you can find terms
that suit the column name you are mapping.
5. Discover transformation rules as well as mappings … oh hang on, that’s in the next
release!
6. Reverse engineer DataStage Server jobs so you can generate DataStage Enterprise jobs
from a Server job mapping.
7. More flexible licensing. You buy licenses in packs of 10 – and that’s too many for a