Truth Revisited
Back in November 2009, during my then annual visit to the RSNA trade show event at McCormick Place in downtown Chicago, I came across a slogan on display in the Cerner Corporation exhibit which read "Single Source of TruthTM". As a consultant, I was surprised that such a commonly used technology expression was granted a trademark.
And running across this slogan came shortly after my multiple stints at a healthcare insurance firm in which I had recalled the client CIO describing what he needed as "Single Source of Truth". But in revisiting my discussions following the trade show, I was reminded that he had actually described his need as "Single Version of the Truth", and used this expression interchangeably with "Single Source of Data".
In 2010 and 2013, I wrote two variations of the same post to address the differences between "Single Source of Truth", "Single Version of the Truth", and "Single Source of Data". After subsequently coming across the phrase "Source of Truth" within the context of a particular family of data related technologies, I have come to realize that these posts could use a revisit. This post provides a synthesis, starting with some earlier definitions: