Master Data Management in Practice: Achieving True Customer MDM

Summary

We have discussed that data stewardship is defined by the combination of the people, processes, and a data caretaking focus, and provided examples of how and where these three key elements can be applied in a Customer MDM model.

From a people perspective, we pointed out that there needs to be business resources commitment to data management and quality improvement, and that this should be driven by data governance through a data steward model involving an MDM core team and process area data stewards. From a process perspective, we talked about how incident management, change management, and gatekeeping processes needed to sufficiently recognize and support data management and quality control, and how data steward roles can be engaged and add value to those processes. And from a data caretaking perspective, we indicate how this is the more intangible element of data stewardship, but also the common denominator that makes for good data stewards.

In general, we have stressed the importance of data stewardship and how the data steward roles can make the difference between poor and successful execution for many initiatives. In essence, it is the ability to execute MDM with a data stewardship approach and through the data steward channels that will make for a cohesive MDM model.