Data as a Resource: Properties, Implications, and Prescriptions

Almost every activity in which an enterprise engages, from the most mundane operation to the most far-reaching decision, requires data. Yet data are rarely managed well: Few enterprises know what data they have; people cannot access or use data; and data quality is often low. Furthermore, individual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMIT Sloan management review Vol. 40; no. 1; p. 89
Main Authors Levitin, Anany V, Redman, Thomas C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 01.10.1998
Subjects
Data models
Guidelines
Information management
Knowledge
Magnetic tape
Raw materials
Resource management
United States > US
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Summary:Almost every activity in which an enterprise engages, from the most mundane operation to the most far-reaching decision, requires data. Yet data are rarely managed well: Few enterprises know what data they have; people cannot access or use data; and data quality is often low. Furthermore, individuals and business units often hoard data, leading to political battles over ownership. To help enterprises manage data as a business resource, the fundamental properties of data are surveyed, and the challenges and opportunities involved in working with data are explored. "Data" consist of "data models," which are the organization's definitions of entities, their attributes and the relationships among them, and "data values," which are the specific realizations of an attribute of the data model for particular entities. The properties of data have management implications in 5 key areas, which are discussed in detail.
ISSN:1532-9194