With marketers and brand managers realizing the potential benefits of agile data management, the race is on to implement such practices across the board. Although the concept is simple enough, implementing it is easier said than done.
The mistake many managers make is being obsessed with the technicalities of the concept. Agile data management is as much a new approach, or a way of doing things, as it is a set of technical guidelines that can be implemented by making a few software or hardware tweaks.
Agile data management mandates a partnership between IT and business, with the business having to ensure getting the right technology in place required for best output – rather than allowing IT to dictate the best output possible with the available technology.
The basic prerequisite for agile data management is a change in the organization’s communication structure, and possibly even culture, to ensure that each individual in the value chain can communicate directly to other stakeholders.
Again, agile data management requires on-going communication rather than front loading information at the start of the project. It is a new approach with a thrust on delivering relevant data through the most convenient medium at the appropriate time, rather than comply with process oriented document requirements. Yet data governance finds a place, and the concept does not allow for a haphazard, free for all data policy.
On the technical perspective, agile data management requires automation of the communication processes, and such automation should ideally precede integration of data from various sources to ensure seamless transactions.
Open but automated communication, partnership between IT and the business, and a complete new approach to data management. Are you ready?
