Metadata: Unlocking the Power of Data Context

Metadata, often described as “data about data,” is the key to understanding, managing, and utilising organisational information. It provides the critical context that enables data to be discoverable, interpretable, and actionable. Metadata can be categorised into three main types (as outlined from DAMA DMBOK v2): technical, business, and operational.

Technical Metadata

Technical metadata defines the structural and functional details of data, such as schema, data type, and size. For example, it specifies that a “Date of Birth” field is a date format (DD/MM/YYYY). This information supports system design, integration, and troubleshooting, ensuring data consistency across platforms. Standards like ISO/IEC 11179 provide global guidelines for metadata registries, ensuring uniformity and clarity.

However when capturing date, I always recommend the ISO standard: YYYYMMDD as it reduces any issues.

Business Metadata

Business metadata connects data to organisational purposes. It explains what a field means in a business context and identifies its relevance. For instance, “Customer Type” may categorise individuals as “Retail,” “Wholesale,” or “Enterprise,” linking the field to segmentation strategies. Business metadata empowers teams to align data usage with objectives and decision-making processes. It’s also important to ensure that this can line up with your Business Glossary. In Australia, HeSANDA (Health Studies Australian National Data Asset) promotes metadata consistency for health research, facilitating national and global collaboration – this is predominantly for clinical trials. But when in doubt, you can always fall back on the Dublin Core standard

Operational Metadata

Operational metadata tracks how data is processed, used, and stored. It includes details such as data lineage, processing times, and system interactions. For example, operational metadata might indicate that a data transformation process took 30 minutes and fed into a sales dashboard. The other important item here, is for data transfers – when receiving inputs from other entities, if the processing time drops from 2 hours to 30 minutes, it could be a leading indicator that something may have changed on their side but you and your analytics team have not been informed (even if you have an interface dependency agreement aka IDA). The FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) are widely used to enhance metadata discoverability and utility across industries. FAIR’s adaptability makes it a versatile choice for organisations managing diverse datasets.

Why Metadata Matters

Metadata enables authorised users to find, understand, and trust organisational data assets. It improves efficiency, reduces duplication, and supports compliance by providing transparency around data usage and stewardship. With these tags, you can load them into a centralised data catalog without the need to shift the data to a central location. This approach does enable decentralised data locations, but it does run the risk of being isolated if proper owners and stewards are not identified. It also helps with compliance to ensure an organisation can understand the levels of confidential data that it owns and the security required to protect it.

Building a Metadata Management Framework

To implement effective metadata management, invest in tools like data catalogues and engage stakeholders across departments. Regular updates and automation can keep metadata accurate and relevant. There are plenty of tools out there that you can use, and ones I have seen in action are Collibra or Alation, which organisations can use to automate metadata capture and ensure compliance with global and local standards. Aligning metadata efforts with these guidelines enhances data discoverability, usability, and governance.

For more details on the blueprint behind implementing a good data governance program – click here!

If you’d like assistance or advice with your Data Governance implementation, please feel free to drop me an email here and I will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible!