Data Management by Walking Around

There is this sentence that has been stuck in my head recently. Like the chorus to an old 80’s classic hair metal song it has been living rent free in my mind, and I can’t seem to shake it. It is not nearly as catchy as “Run to the Hills” or “Pour some Sugar on me”, in fact, it revolves about something as dull as all the interpersonal aspects of data management that always get ignored. Here goes!

Even though most people by now have gotten the message that data governance (and most of the related data management elements) is not a technical discipline, we are still so used to treating it as rational, structured thing that can be defined, measured and weighed to give us the unequivocal truth.

For example, take the classic data quality dimensions: We as data professionals have this idea that “the business” can give us the ultimate answer on how to define and measure “validity” or “consistency”. This means that we should be able to pinpoint exactly when something is and is not fit for purpose - no matter what it is. This is especially funny since most of the time, we ourselves can’t even explain what we mean with terms such as “validity” and “consistency”.

So even though we may have taken the first step away from “data management is technology”, we are still stuck in a mindset that is just a hop, skip and a jump away from it. And most importantly, that is simply not how the world works.

Because in reality, so much of the data management space lives in ambiguity and grey areas. The most obvious example is data governance, which dies without an understanding of the interpersonal relations, but it is by no means the only one

Both defining reference data, and structuring Master Data, is much more art than science. Heck, more time and money has probably been wasted over the years on trying to create reports, dashboards - and whatever other analytical data products you can think of - by using a deterministic waterfall-mindset than the 17 drug-filled years Guns’n’Roses spent making the successor to Use Your Illusion II.

I would argue that knowing and understanding your stakeholders is one of the most essential skills of a data professional. If you think that you can outsource, offshore or completely automate the core data management activities, congratulations, you are part of the “why 80% of all data projects fail”-statistic.

Instead, engage with your colleagues (and for gods sake, stop calling them “the business” - there is nothing more alienating than being reduced to a member of a grey, nondescript group, whose main traits is that they work in another department). Meet with them by the coffee machine - or better yet, buy them a cup of real coffee - show them how the work they are doing benefits them and the organization (rather than a soulless data strategy locked away on a SharePoint site) and give them a reason to do the data management activities. In essence prioritize what I have come to calling…

Data Management by Walking Around.

… and if I ever get around to writing a book, that is probably the title right there.