Where InfoSphere Blueprint Director fits in the suite architecture

Enterprise architects use InfoSphere® Blueprint Director to create a reusable blueprint that encapsulates the vision of your information integration project.

For example, the IT team can connect blueprint elements to metadata and use IBM® InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to view the referenced metadata. The IT team can also connect elements to data models in InfoSphere Data Architect, ETL definitions in InfoSphere DataStage®, cleansing functions in InfoSphere QualityStage®, URLs in web browsers, or files in other applications.

By integrating with other InfoSphere Information Server components and linking information assets to actual metadata, the blueprint and subdiagrams provide an accurate representation of your information landscape. As the project changes, team members can collaborate to update blueprints, ensuring that the business vision and the technical project plan are synchronized.

The following table lists actions that you can do when InfoSphere Blueprint Director is integrated with other software products.

Table 1. How software products work with InfoSphere Blueprint Director
IBM Software products	Assets	What you can do in InfoSphere Blueprint Director
InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog	Categories Terms Information governance policies Information governance rules Assets, other than terms, in the business glossary of InfoSphere Information Server	Download categories, terms, information governance policies, and information governance rules from the business glossary area of the catalog to a local business glossary. Browse these assets by using the Glossary Explorer pane. Update the local business glossary according to the update preferences that you define. Display details of the asset in the Properties pane. Associate a term with a blueprint element. Browse assets in the catalog by using the Asset Browser pane. Associate an asset with a blueprint element. Open InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to display details of the asset.
InfoSphere Data Architect	Data models	Associate a data model with a blueprint element. Open InfoSphere Data Architect to display or edit data models.
InfoSphere DataStage	Jobs Shared containers	Associate a job or shared container with a blueprint element. Open either InfoSphere DataStage or InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog, depending on the preference that you selected in Information Server Asset Links window, to display or edit jobs. Open InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to display the details page of the job.
InfoSphere Data Click	Warehouse databases	Offload warehouse databases or offload select schemas and database tables within warehouse to a private sandbox.
InfoSphere FastTrack	Mapping projects	Browse mapping projects by using the Asset Browser pane. Associate a mapping project with a blueprint element. Open InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to display details of the mapping project.
Cognos® Framework Manager	Cubes	Associate a business intelligence (BI) model or elements in a sketch with a blueprint element. Open IBM Cognos Framework Manager to display a BI model.

In addition to IBM software products, InfoSphere Blueprint Director also works with Microsoft Office files, general files, and web addresses. These assets, which are not found in the InfoSphere Information Server business glossary, can give business meaning to your blueprint elements.

Table 2. How you can use other assets in a blueprint
Other assets that you can use in a blueprint	Examples	What you can do in InfoSphere Blueprint Director
Parts of Microsoft Office files	A paragraph in a Microsoft Office Word file Rows of a spreadsheet in a Microsoft Office Excel file Slides in a Microsoft Office PowerPoint file	Associate part of a Microsoft Office file with a blueprint element.
Files	Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint files IBM Lotus® Symphony® files Video files Microsoft Notes® files Graphic files	Associate any file from your computer with a blueprint element.
Web address (URL)	www.my_company.com/MyDocuments/requirements/reqs_for_database_v2_2.mht	Associate a web address with a blueprint element.