How is your metadata delivered?

Is your metadata delivered in the same package as the data it describes?

Does it come from the same source?

How rich and complete is your metadata? How consistent is it?

Is your data distributed from a central source, or are there meaningful capabilities for self-service?

Has this changed over time?

Does the answer depend on the data?

How does the richness of the metadata depend on the source from which you obtain the data?

How does the metadata for your self-service data compare to the metadata for centrally delivered data?

Can you contribute your own metadata for data from either source, or both?

Does your approach to self-service data introduce new challenges for data quality, and for consistent metadata?

Is the trade-off worth it?

Have you chosen a specific approach to self-service data because your central IT data team hasn’t acknowledged the changing needs of the business?

Has your central data team adopted new approaches to delivering data?

Is it as easy to get data through official and supported channels as it is to get data from a peer, circumventing those official channels?

When was the last time you needed to add your own metadata to the data you got from a central IT source?

How has the way you discover and obtain data changed over time? Has it made your life easier, harder, or both?

When was the last time you needed to break rules to get the data you needed?

When was the last time you chose to not use a data source because of the lack of available and trustworthy metadata?