Data Governance

2 items

A data governance policy exists with designated data owners, stewards, and an escalation process
A data governance council or working group meets regularly to review policies and resolve issues

02

Data Architecture

2 items

An enterprise data architecture blueprint defines how data flows between systems, applications, and storage layers
Technology standards (databases, cloud platforms, integration patterns) are documented and enforced

03

Data Modeling & Design

2 items

Conceptual, logical, and physical data models exist for key business domains
Naming conventions and modeling standards are defined and followed consistently

04

Data Storage & Operations

2 items

Databases and storage infrastructure are monitored for performance, capacity, and availability
Backup, recovery, and disaster recovery procedures are documented and tested regularly

05

Data Security

2 items

Sensitive data is classified (PII, PHI, financial) with role-based access controls enforced
You are compliant with relevant data privacy regulations (GDPR, APPI, CCPA, etc.)

06

Data Integration & Interoperability

2 items

ETL/ELT pipelines are automated, version-controlled, and monitored with alerting on failures
APIs and data contracts exist for sharing data between systems and teams

07

Document & Content Management

2 items

Unstructured data (documents, emails, media) is organized with retention and lifecycle policies
Content is searchable and accessible through a centralized repository or content management system

08

Reference & Master Data

2 items

A master data management (MDM) strategy provides golden records for key entities (customers, products, locations)
Reference data (codes, lookups, classifications) is standardized and governed centrally

09

Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence

2 items

A data warehouse or lakehouse provides a single source of truth for analytical workloads
Executives and teams have self-service dashboards with consistent metric definitions across departments

10

Metadata Management

2 items

A data catalog or dictionary documents datasets, definitions, owners, and update frequencies
Data lineage is traceable end-to-end from source systems through transformations to reports

11

Data Quality

2 items

Data quality dimensions (accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency) are measured and monitored
Data profiling and cleansing processes run automatically with defined thresholds and alerting

Data Strategy Readiness Checklist

Data Governance

Data Architecture

Data Modeling & Design

Data Storage & Operations

Data Security

Data Integration & Interoperability

Document & Content Management

Reference & Master Data

Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence

Metadata Management

Data Quality

Your Score