I deal with production pipelines and production asset management systems all the time. I’ve come up with a couple metaphore’s I like.
Asset Management library metaphor
An asset management system is a lot like a library. Artists and Engineers create assets, like books, and then deposit them into the library. Once the assets are in the library, anyone can see them. People can browse assets in the library, the assets in the library have information about who created what asset when. The assets in the library also are arranged and sorted many different ways that make it very easy to find assets. Libraries are big buildings designed to protect their contents, while providing a comfortable save environment for browsing those assets. Game Assets kept the library are also safe from all manner of catastrophes that befall workstations and laptops. In a library, librarians will give you a library card that will let you check out books. An asset management system can provide security and protect who can have the ability to change or even view assets. Also just like a library, assets can be checked out, viewed, edited, changed, and checked back in.
