Not all data is created equal.

One size does not fit all.

In addition to collaboration and partnership between business and IT, successful data cultures have something  else in common: they recognize the need for both discipline and flexibility, and have clear, consistent criteria and responsibilities that let all stakeholders know what controls apply to what data and applications.

Today’s video looks at this key fact, and emphasizes this important point: you need to pick your battles^[1].

If you try to lock everything down and manage all data and applications rigorously, business users who need more agility will not be able to do their jobs – or more likely they will simply work around your controls. This approach puts you back into the bad old days before there were robust and flexible self-service BI tools – you don’t want this.

If you try to let every user do whatever they want with any data, you’ll quickly find yourself in the “wild west” days – you don’t want that either.

Instead, work with your executive sponsor and key stakeholders from business and IT to understand what requires discipline and control, and what supports flexibility and agility.

One approach will never work for all data – don’t try to make it fit.

^[1] The original title of this post and video was “discipline and flexibility” but when the phrase “pick your battles” came out unscripted^[2] as I was recording the video, I realized that no other title would be so on-brand for me. And here we are.

^[2] In case you were wondering, it’s all unscripted. Every time I edit and watch a recording, I’m surprised. True story.