Defining data IP

Consider your existing know-how, that is, all that you have learned about data, individually and as a team, as your unique data IP. It can work as a sort of magic wand for your company’s business – this is how it might be viewed from an external perspective.

My personal realization about how valuable our data management knowledge truly is came late in the game, after many years of delivery across multiple domains. For all these years, we had been documenting, preserving, testing, and embedding all kinds of DQ and business rules. I certainly felt confident about our ability to retain this knowledge under any circumstances, as we had an impressive inventory of process maps, data flows, operational specifications, and business guidelines, plus much more.

I was on a regular trip to Redmond, meeting with our stakeholders, business and data stewards, sister teams in IT, and engineering partners. In one of those numerous meetings, while presenting the...