Web Seminar on Data Management: Strategies for Optimizing Metadata Usage
In a recent webinar, Peter Aiken, Ph.D., the president of DAMA International and an internationally recognised expert in Data Management, shared key strategies for improving metadata practices to increase the value of data assets.
The webinar did not mention any specific business initiatives that the sophisticated techniques support, nor did it provide downloadable materials or information about the specific learning objectives. However, it aimed to provide insights related to metadata practice and data leveraging strategies.
Aiken, who has helped over 200 businesses leverage data, resulting in savings of more than $1.5 billion, emphasised the importance of understanding metadata and its associated technologies beyond straightforward tools. He explained that this understanding can provide powerful insight into organisational practices.
One of the key strategies Aiken discussed was automating metadata management by integrating metadata tools into data pipelines. This active metadata management ensures up-to-date and consistent metadata while reducing errors and manual effort.
Another strategy involved defining metadata standards and policies to enforce consistency and accuracy across data sets. Aiken recommended treating glossaries and repositories as capabilities, not technology, to promote this approach to metadata practice.
The webinar also highlighted the importance of employing purpose-built metadata management systems such as data catalogs or metadata repositories. These tools help organise, search, validate, and version metadata effectively.
Aiken also stressed the need for implementing metadata quality control and validation automation through routine testing to detect missing, inconsistent, or incorrect metadata early, maintaining integrity and usability.
He further recommended applying metadata tagging during data ingestion to ensure immediate and consistent classification of data assets, which accelerates downstream processing. Tracking metadata changes with versioning was another strategy he suggested to audit evolution, maintain reproducibility, and diagnose problems arising from metadata drift.
Aiken also encouraged a cultural and organisational shift by promoting data literacy, stewardship, and training. He emphasised that human processes should support the technical improvements and sustainability of metadata practices.
Lastly, Aiken highlighted the importance of integrating metadata practices with data observability to gain end-to-end visibility into data quality, usage patterns, pipeline health, and compliance. This, he explained, enables proactive issue detection and lifecycle management.
In conclusion, these strategies create an infrastructure that makes data assets more accessible, manageable, complete, trustworthy, and compliant, ultimately improving their value for business insights and operations.
This presentation was brought to you in partnership with unspecified collaborators. Aiken, who is also an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the founder of Anything Awesome, has authored 13 books on Data Management. He is also associated with the MIT International Society of Chief Data Officers and hosts the longest-running Data Management webinar series.
- To maximise the value of data assets, implementing strategies like automating metadata management, defining metadata standards and policies, employing purpose-built metadata management systems, and integrating metadata practices with data observability can be beneficial in data governance, a key aspect of data management.
- In the realm of data-and-cloud-computing, understanding metadata and its associated technologies beyond basic tools, promoted by experts like Peter Aiken, can provide valuable insights into an organisation's practices, driving further improvements in data management and governance.
