Manage CDE Registry

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

The CDE Registry is the part of the CDE Manager you use to create, review, certify, and manage Critical Data Elements (CDEs). You begin populating the registry after reviewing the default CDE standards and creating any additional Template Overlay standards required for your governance program. (For information on standards, see Manage CDE Standards.)

Creating CDEs is an AI-assisted process. CDEs are created from document objects in the catalog that describe critical data. AI applies all published standards to the new CDE, generates potential fields and values based on those standards, and analyzes catalog content to suggest the assets that should be associated with and governed through the CDE.

In this topic:

Add a New CDE

Prerequisites

Before creating a CDE, ensure that:

  • You have created and published all necessary CDE standards.

  • You have Document Hub document objects in your catalog that describe critical data. These documents might contain descriptions, clarifications, retention or compliance details, and any other relevant information.

Note

CDEs are only created from Document Hub documents. You cannot create a CDE without a source document. You may also create CDEs in bulk by selecting a folder of documents within a Document Hub.

CDE Lifecycle

A CDE moves through the following lifecycle stages:

  • Candidate: Initial state. AI has generated some of the content, but not the full content yet.

  • Draft: AI has generated all content, and you can edit it.

  • In Review: You have submitted the CDE for review to authorized approvers. An approver defined by the Approval Rules standard will assess it.

  • Certified: The CDE has been reviewed and approved. It becomes part of the catalog, is included in the registry, and is monitored and governed.

As you update and refine the CDE, you will advance it from the Draft stage to In Review. After the review is complete, an approver will move the CDE to the Certified state.

Create a New CDE

To create a new CDE:

  1. In CDE Manager > Registry, click Add New CDE. The Add New CDE dialog opens.

  2. Select a creation method, choosing the corresponding tab:

    • Create One CDE

    • Create in Bulk

  3. If you’re on the Create One CDE tab, click the via DocHub icon. If you’re on the Create in Bulk tab, click via the DocHub Folder icon.

  4. Select the source document or folder:

    • If creating a single CDE, choose a Source Document from the list.

    • If creating CDEs in bulk, choose a Folder that contains multiple source documents.

    Use the search field to filter by document or folder name. The list updates as you type.

  5. Once a source is selected, the Create CDE button becomes enabled. Click Create CDE.

    • If creating a single CDE: the Creating CDE from <document name> dialog opens. AI immediately begins analyzing the source document content.

    • If creating CDEs in bulk: Multiple CDEs are added to the Registry table in the Candidate state. When you open a candidate from the table, you will see the initially generated content and can choose Accept Candidate in the stepper on top of the CDE page. After accepting, the Creating CDE from <document name> dialog is displayed. AI begins analyzing the source document content.

  6. As the first step, AI generates an initial risk assessment label for the CDE based on the document text and catalog metadata. For this step, you can:

    • Accept: Applies the AI-generated risk assessment and moves the CDE to the next stage: Standards Assignment.

    • Reject: Allows you to manually select a risk level and update the rationale, then moves to Standards Assignment.

  7. At the Standards Assignment step, AI examines your published CDE standards and assigns applicable standards to the new CDE. You can adjust the assignments before proceeding.

    • Automatic assignments: Baseline Metadata and Risk Assessment standards are always applied and do not appear in the editable list.

    • You can select more Template Overlay standards manually and remove any AI-assigned Template Overlay standards that don’t apply.

    Note

    Finalizing the standard assignment at this stage can help reduce processing time later. AI will generate fields and requirements for all assigned standards. Removing irrelevant standards at this stage avoids unnecessary work when reviewing the draft later.

  8. After setting standard assignments, you can choose one of the following:

    • Finish Later: Saves the CDE in its current state as a Candidate.

    • Save CDE: Completes initial creation and moves the CDE into the Draft stage. You may see the AI processes progress message before you can view the draft. Once completed, you can review and update the generated content.

Edit a CDE Draft

When a CDE is first created, its initial content is generated by AI. You should carefully review the generated content and make any updates needed before submitting the CDE for approval.

To edit a draft:

  1. In CDE Manager > Registry, locate the CDE you want to edit and click its name.

  2. The content is organized by the standards applied during CDE creation. Each standard appears as a separate collapsible panel containing the fields and values generated from its requirements. Review the content section by section, ensuring that all information is accurate and complete.

  3. In the Draft stage, you may still modify the Template Overlay standards assigned to the CDE:

    1. Click Configure Standards in the top-right corner.

    2. In the dialog Configure Standards that opens, add or remove the Template Overlay standards as needed.

    3. Click Save.

    4. The CDE is updated to reflect the revised set of standards. If new standards are added, you will briefly see an AI processing message as fields for those standards are generated.

  4. Expand the first standard’s section. Until you review it, the section displays a yellow Needs attention label. Fields may also include an Agent confidence indicator (High, Medium, or Low) reflecting how confident the AI engine is in the suggested content:

    1. Carefully review each field. Edit any content that requires correction.

    2. For rich-text fields, click Save after editing.

  5. Once you finish reviewing a section, click Mark reviewed next to the section title. The section status changes from Needs attention to Completed.

  6. Repeat this process for all standard sections until each displays a green Completed label.

  7. The final section, Data Assets, defines which catalog objects are governed as part of the CDE. These assets will be monitored for compliance against the associated standards. You can assign assets in two ways:

    • Assign using AI: AI analyzes the catalog and suggests assets (column objects) that match the criteria inferred from the source document.

    • Assign manually: You can add assets directly through the selector.

    For details, see Assign Data Assets.

  8. When all sections are marked as Completed, the draft is ready for review. In the stepper at the top of the page, click Submit for review. The CDE moves to the In Review state, where approvers defined in the Approval Rules standard can review it.

    • If approved: As the CDE Owner, you must confirm the approval. Once confirmed, the CDE transitions to the Certified state. A certified CDE is final and cannot be edited. Find more information in Owner Approval Workflow.

    • If rejected: The CDE returns to the Draft state. The reviewer’s feedback appears in a tooltip next to the In Review status. You must address the feedback and resubmit the CDE for review.

Assign Data Assets

The Data Assets section of a CDE defines which catalog objects are governed as part of the CDE. You may assign assets using AI-generated suggestions or by selecting assets manually.

Assign Data Assets Using AI

To assign data assets with AI assistance:

  1. In the Data Assets section, click the AI Data Mapping icon. The Configure Data Mapping dialog opens.

  2. In the Synonyms section of the dialog, review the list of column-name suggestions generated from cataloged columns across all data sources. Remove any suggestions that are not relevant to the CDE, and keep only those that accurately represent terms associated with the critical data.

  3. In the Data Sources field, choose one of the filter conditions:

    • Include all (default): Include assets from all data sources.

    • Include selected: Limit suggestions to specific data sources you choose.

    • Exclude selected: Include assets from all data sources except those you select.

  4. If you selected Include selected or Exclude selected, the Search for data sources list becomes enabled. Search for and select the relevant data sources using the search field.

  5. Click Confirm and run at the bottom of the dialog. AI begins processing based on your configuration. A progress message is displayed. When complete, the Data Assets table is populated with suggested assets. The Relationship column initially displays the label Suggested for all AI-suggested assets.

    Note

    If you click Mark reviewed before reviewing these items, any asset still labeled Suggested will be removed. Be sure to evaluate each suggested item before finalizing the section.

  6. For each asset, hover over the Relationship column to reveal the edit (pencil) icon. Click the icon and select the appropriate relationship from the dropdown list:

    • Suggested

    • Control Point

    • Related

  7. If an item is not needed, you may either:

    • Leave it as Suggested (it will be removed automatically when you mark the section reviewed), or

    • Click the Remove icon to explicitly delete it.

  8. Click Refresh Scores to recalculate the CDE’s scoring metrics displayed at the top of the CDE page. The score updates based on the assets currently in the Data Assets table. The scores are displayed at the top of the CDE page under the lifecycle stepper.

  9. After assigning relationship values to all required assets, click Mark as reviewed. Once all other CDE sections are also marked as reviewed, you may submit the CDE for approval.

Assign Data Assets Manually

To assign data assets manually:

  1. In the Data Assets section, click the Manual Data Mapping icon (plus). A Quick Search dialog opens.

  2. Use the search field and the Showing Everything filter to locate and select relevant catalog columns. Repeat this process as many times as necessary to include all applicable assets.

  3. In the Data Assets table, review the entries you added:

    • Hover over the Relationship column to display the edit (pencil) icon, then select a relationship value from:

      • Control Point

      • Related

  4. Click Refresh Scores to update the scoring metrics based on your manually assigned assets. The score updates based on the assets currently in the Data Assets table. The scores are displayed at the top of the CDE page under the lifecycle stepper.

  5. After assigning relationships to all assets, click Mark as reviewed. When all other CDE sections have been reviewed, you may submit the CDE for approval.

Review a CDE Draft

Approvers review and evaluate CDE drafts that have been submitted for approval. These CDEs appear in the Registry with the status Pending Approval. The review process determines whether a draft is ready to be certified or requires additional updates.

To review a CDE draft:

  1. In CDE Manager > Registry, click the name of the CDE you need to review.

  2. The CDE page opens, and the stepper at the top shows the current status In Review.

  3. Review all sections of the CDE, including standards-generated fields and assigned data assets, to ensure accuracy and completeness.

  4. When you are ready to make a decision, click Review under the In Review step in the stepper. The Review dialog opens.

  5. Under Decision, choose one of the following:

    • Approve: The content is complete and ready to proceed.

    • Reject: The content requires additional changes before it can be published.

  6. Enter comments in the Rationale text area. Feedback is especially important when rejecting a draft so the owner knows what must be corrected.

  7. Click Submit Review at the bottom of the dialog to finalize your decision.

  8. If you selected Approve, the draft moves to one of the following states:

    • Certified: If you are both the Owner of the CDE and an Approver defined in the Approval Rules standard, the CDE is immediately certified. Once a CDE is certified, the CDE Manager begins monitoring it for CDE Compliance. This CDE’s compliance data contributes to the CDE scores displayed at the top of the CDE Registry main page.

      Note

      Certified CDEs cannot be edited. Updates require creating a new draft version.

    • Pending Owner’s Approval: If you are an Approver but not the Owner, the draft moves to this intermediate state. The Owner must complete a final approval step before the CDE becomes Certified.

  9. If you selected Reject, the draft returns to the Draft state. The owner must revise the content and resubmit it for review. Your rationale appears as a tooltip next to the status indicator in the stepper.

Owner Approval Workflow

If you are the CDE Owner and some CDEs require your approval, those entries display the status Pending Owner’s Approval.

To complete the approval:

  1. In the Registry, use the CDE Ownership filter and select My CDEs.

  2. Locate the entries with the status Pending Owner’s Approval.

  3. Open each CDE and approve it. The CDE then transitions to the Certified state.

View CDE Information in the Catalog

When a CDE reaches the Certified state, each column included in its Data Assets section receives a back-reference on its catalog page. This back-reference is displayed in the built-in Related CDE field, which identifies the CDE that governs the column.

The Related CDE field is searchable and can be used as a filter in Alation Search. This allows you to locate all catalog columns associated with a specific CDE.

To search for CDE-related data assets:

  1. In Alation Search, set the Object Type filter to Column.

  2. Add the Related CDE filter and select the desired CDE.

  3. Apply any additional filters as needed to refine the results.