Business asset types are structured data objects that represent key business concepts or entities, such as customers, products, and accounts. These asset types serve as the foundation for various data governance activities, ensuring that data is managed effectively and consistently across the organization.
The primary users involved in the management and utilization of business asset types include:
- Data stewards: Responsible for maintaining the quality and integrity of business asset types, ensuring they are up-to-date and accurately reflect business needs.
- Business analysts: Utilize business asset types to analyze data trends and support decision-making processes.
- Compliance officers: Ensure that business asset types align with regulatory requirements and help in auditing processes.
- IT professionals: Implement and manage the technical infrastructure that supports business asset types, ensuring seamless integration with other systems.
- Department managers: Use business asset types to align departmental objectives with organizational goals and facilitate cross-departmental initiatives.
Why business asset types matter?
Business asset types are crucial for implementing data governance strategies. They enable organizations to:
- Ensure data quality and consistency across different business units.
- Facilitate data stewardship by clearly defining ownership and responsibilities.
- Enhance metadata management by providing a structured framework for data classification.
- Strengthen data security by identifying sensitive data and applying appropriate controls.
When a user creates a new business asset, they must first choose an asset type. An asset type determines:
- Category of the asset, for example, Business Term or Objective.
- Fields which must be populated for the asset.
- Relationships that can be created.
- Workflows that are initiated upon certain actions, such as creation or modification.
- Responsibilities assigned by default to the asset.
Example: Consider a company that has a term "customer onboarding". Different departments might interpret it differently:
- The marketing team thinks it means when a customer signs up.
- The sales team believes it when the first sale is made.
- The support team thinks it involves the customer receiving help setting up the product.
Listed below are some common business asset types:
- Enterprise Business Terms: The most common asset type, used to standardize general business terms. A business term is a word or phrase with a specific meaning within a company. These terms are stored in applications, used in reports, and may be licensed from external sources. The goal is to create a glossary to ensure consistent understanding and usage across the organization. Business terms can be linked to other terms, contractual obligations, and regulations, providing a comprehensive view of their impact and relationships.
- Objectives: The data governance goals that an enterprise wants to achieve. Objectives could be driven by a business or technical goal, and should include measurable targets with explicit time frames.
How to utilize business asset types?
To effectively utilize business asset types, organizations should:
- Identify and define key business concepts that require governance.
- Create structured asset types for these concepts, ensuring they align with organizational goals.
- Implement data governance policies that leverage these asset types for improved data management.
- Regularly review and update asset types to reflect changes in business operations or objectives.
Business asset types are utilized in various scenarios to streamline data governance and management processes. Some common use cases include:
- Data quality management: Ensuring that data across different departments is consistent and accurate by standardizing business terms and definitions.
- Regulatory compliance: Aligning business processes with regulatory requirements by defining and managing business terms that are subject to compliance.
- Cross-departmental collaboration: Facilitating communication and understanding between departments by providing a common language and framework for business concepts.
- Strategic planning: Using standardized business terms and objectives to align data governance strategies with organizational goals.