Lesson 9 — Metrics, Cross-Domain Connections & Change
Chapter 15 uses more than the maturity rating to manage improvement. The organization needs measures of capability, cost, risk, value, assessment coverage, and change over time.
Six metric families
1. DMMA ratings
Show current capability, target capability, and gaps.
They answer where are we? but not every value/cost question.
2. Resource utilization
Shows human cost of weak Data Management.
Example: percentage of staff time spent manually aggregating or reconciling data.
A higher maturity score accompanied by rising manual labor may indicate unsustainable improvement or a misleading view.
3. Risk exposure / response capability
Asks whether current maturity can support planned business change or risk scenarios.
Example: can a manual Level-1 style operating model support a highly automated new business safely?
4. Spend management and value
Looks at how cost is allocated and whether investment produces sustainable value.
Possible evidence includes: - goal achievement; - training/communication effectiveness; - business contribution; - risk reduction; - efficiency; - sustainability.
5. Inputs to DMMA / coverage
Tracks what evidence the score actually represents: - systems covered; - teams involved; - availability; - data volumes; - breadth/depth of investigation.
This is crucial when interpreting a maturity score or comparing reassessments.
6. Rate of change
Measures how quickly capability improves from the baseline through periodic reassessment.
Cross-domain connections
Data Governance
Often drives/oversees the DMMA, supplies standards/enforcement evidence, and uses findings for planning/compliance.
Data Quality
DQ awareness, controls, and metrics are common visible maturity clues.
Data Modeling & Design
The chapter uses modeling as an example of how criteria can evolve across maturity levels.
Metadata Management
Repositories and metadata artifacts provide proof of practice; missing or stale repositories may reveal capability gaps or evidence risk.
Reference & Master Data
Readiness for MDM is a concrete driver for maturity assessment.
Architecture, Storage, Security, DII, DW/BI
Each can be assessed as a capability and contributes processes, tools, standards, roles, evidence, risks, and target-state gaps.
Organizational Change
Maturity improvement changes processes, tools, roles, methods, expectations, and behaviors. The roadmap therefore becomes organizational change, not merely a technical upgrade.
Cultural transformation
Measurement makes different perspectives visible. Governance uses that visibility to create a shared vision. A good DMMA can educate stakeholders, clarify roles, and help the organization move from competing opinions toward a common evidence-supported improvement story.
Final synthesis
A mature answer to a Chapter 15 scenario should identify which kind of problem is present:
- maturity level distinction;
- criterion vs level score;
- current vs target gap;
- framework fit/integrity;
- planning/scope/communication;
- evidence/rating/consensus;
- interpretation/report/briefing;
- roadmap priority;
- readiness risk;
- governance;
- metric family;
- reassessment/comparability.
Then state the deciding clue and the changed fact that would switch the answer.
Source: pp. 505–520.