The point of this article is not to outline all of the steps, processes, methods used to create a data management practice. It is to ask you to please not pretend that you are doing data management when you are not. Data management is not a project. It is not something that is ever completed; it is a practice that persists within the processes of your organization. It is part of your culture.

Real data management is NOT a reactive process. Of course the initial trigger for even using the term of “data management” might be a reaction to being called out for bad or inconsistent data, compliance to a law or regulation, fines, a lawsuit, increasing costs, or any number of events that make you say the words. You at least need to be able to say you are putting an effort forward so you engage in a effort to address the trigger and close the action item, right? This type of behavior will never end; you will always react to something new and it will seem that someone is always finding a new way to ‘call you out’.

Maybe your trigger was your own recognition that you get different answers to questions that should be “facts” and yet they seem to be subjective. Regardless of the trigger, reactionary data management is not real data management. Closing an action item or avoiding a major incident does not prove that you are doing data management. DATA MANAGEMENT IS PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE. Proactive data management does not happen overnight and it will likely be a culture shift. It will be a different way to think about data.

Real Data Management (RDM) covers the entire lifecycle of data. Many will focus on the consumption of data, but consumption is nearing the end of the lifecycle of data. The term “cart before the horse” comes to mind. There are so many phrases related to this concept that you would think that people might understand the concept, but most organizations are not designed to support the basics of managing the data from beginning to end. At the point of capture or creation, the related metadata must be stamped, persisted, and protected as much as you would the data itself.

The concept of managing the data end-to-end is not more work (which most argue that it is), it is far less overall work; it is just different work. The fact that it is different will inherently raise barriers from those that resist change (which is most people) and it is why something that is a fairly simple concept is so difficult and why I say that it is a culture shift. Resistance to the shift is inevitable and arguments will come from many sources. The arguments are mostly false and are mostly based on resistance to change and fear.

RDM is just something that you do to take care of one of your most valued possessions. It is not a tradeoff against other legitimate agendas, it supports them all. If you are a person that has struggled with stopping an addiction, or trying to lose weight, or change any behavior that has become engrained in your very being, you know that it is not easy. You may also know that the benefits of changing that behavior has tremendous benefits that come from just taking care of you. Taking care of you and changing your behavior becomes just part of who you are when you are successful. I don’t say this to minimize the devastation of addictive behaviors, but rather to acknowledge that behaviors are very difficult (at best) to change. In the end, success in doing so makes everything surrounding it better, less of a struggle, and certainly less work and cost (in many ways).

Be real. Be truthful with yourself about what you are doing with data management and why. It is not difficult for others to see through a facade, which will make any real progress even more difficult.