In a blog post from yesterday one of my favorite bloggers Loraine Lawson writes:
“Take master data management, for instance. Oh sure, experts preach that it’s a discipline, not “just” a technology, but come on. Did anybody ever hear about MDM before MDM solutions were created?”
The post is called: Let’s Talk: Do You Really Need an Executive Sponsor for MDM?
And yes we do need an executive sponsor. Also we need a business case as we must avoid doing it big bang style and we need to establish metrics for measuring success and so on.
All wise things as it is wise sayings about data quality improvement initiatives, business intelligence (BI) implementations, customer relationship management (CRM) system roll-out and almost any other kind of technology enabled project.
I touched this subject some years ago in the post Universal Pearls of Wisdom.
So let’s talk:
- Is an executive sponsor more important for Master Data Management (MDM) than for Business Intelligence (BI)?
- Is a business case more important for Master Data Management (MDM) than for Supplier Chain Management (SCM)?
- Is big bang style more dangerous for Master Data Management (MDM) than for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
And oh, don’t just tell me that I can’t compare apples and pears.