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What is the role of an enterprise data architect?

Q: What is the role of an enterprise data architect?

Chuck Kelley's Answer:

To define strategy, principles, vision and standards for data within the enterprise. Provide for the data framework, governance and roadmap to attain the vision. Works with strategic vs. tactical requirements of the organization to fulfill the business needs. Partner with management to propagate the vision across the enterprise.

Anne Marie Smith's Answer:

To manage corporate knowledge and that to do so effectively, companies need data architects. What is a data architect? In short, a data architect is the person responsible for the definition, structure, integration and maintenance of data in the enterprise.

Data must be carefully managed for accuracy, currency and usage.

The data architect must be able to understand how the data relates to the current operations and the effects that any future process changes will have on the use of data in the organization and must be alert to the need to maximize the data resources by reducing redundancy, enabling accessibility within security boundaries, fostering corporate understanding of the meaning of the data (meta data management).

Also, the data architect serves as the liaison between users and the database management team and any software development/integration teams. An enterprise data architect must be able to understand and communicate the data requirements of any future infrastructure needs, working with the IT architects to develop an approach that fits the current and planned needs of the organization ("enterprise"). Many enterprise data architects serve on data governance boards and act as the main liaison between governance/user and technology interests within the organization, and they facilitate and document the agreements on appropriate corporate data and its usage (master data management).

Majid Abia's Answer:

This is a pretty good question. In a true sense of form, an enterprise data architect (EDA) focuses on developing standards for naming, describing, governing, managing, modeling, storing, cleansing, transforming, searching and delivering ALL data within the enterprise. This includes methodologies, tools, governance and conventions. In the case of search and delivery of data, the EDA works with an enterprise architect (EA) to adhere to the latest development standards of the enterprise. Consider this: EA and EDA are city planners for the enterprise's IT landscape.

Anne Marie Smith is a highly acclaimed author and speaker in the fields of data stewardship, data governance, data warehousing, data modeling and metadata management. She holds a doctorate in Management Information Systems and has taught at LaSalle University. Smith serves on the board of directors of DAMA International and is an expert advisor to DM Review's Ask the Experts. Smith is the director of education at EWSolutions, a GSA schedule partner and systems integrator dedicated to providing companies and government agencies with best-in-class business intelligence solutions using data warehousing, enterprise architecture and managed metadata environment technologies (www.EWSolutions.com). She may be reached directly via email at AMSmith@EWSolutions.com.

Chuck Kelley is an internationally known expert in database and data warehousing technology. He has 30 years of experience in designing and implementing operational/production systems and data warehouses. Kelley has worked in some facet of the design and implementation phase of more than 50 data warehouses and data marts. He also teaches seminars, co-authored four books on data warehousing and has been published in many trade magazines on database technology, data warehousing and enterprise data strategies. He can be contacted at chuckkelley@usa.net.

Majid Abai is executive vice president and director of Information Management and SOA practices at Crescent Enterprise Solutions, a systems integration organization with 12 offices and 300 consultants across the United States. During the past 24 years, he has focused on providing enterprise IT and information strategies as well as implementation of major business systems to Fortune 2000 organizations and government offices. A number of his clients have been listed as the Top Information Management Organizations by Baseline Magazine.

Abai coauthored Data Strategy, a book published by Addison-Wesley, to provide a comprehensive road map in building a sound data strategy for organizations. He has developed and teaches classes at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Majid is a member of the Ask the Experts panel in DM Review magazine and a regular contributor to CIOupdate.com. He is continuously invited to consult and lecture on various information management and enterprise architecture subjects globally. You can reach him at majid.abai@crescententerprise.net.

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