Very often when organizations embark on Software or System projects, they do so without considering who should be responsible for the data created or stored in the applications.

The question of whose responsibility the Program or Project is, should always form an essential input to planning.

Information Technology management will mostly be focused on technology and technical business solutions while Data Management is focused on data and business solutions from the business perspective.

Both IT and data management work closely together to deliver value to the business.

Data management capability areas require both technical and business capabilities for successful delivery.

Business users cannot access data without IT infrastructure and IT cannot present meaningful data to the business without guidance from the business in the form of data management.

Most projects initiated by the business will require IT(Information Technology) input. This often leads to the business transferring all responsibility of delivery and capabilities to IT.

Often vendors oversell infrastructure and software capabilities and IT will assume ownership and responsibility without considering the implication of doing so. However this is often done in order to obtain approval.

An example of this is when a vendor of a data integration tool sells this tool by stating that the delivery of data quality is included in this tool’s features. Although, this may be true to the extent that the tool checks and matches data types across applications etc, this does not cover the scope of data quality.

This claim by the vendor will indicate to the business that there is no need to perform data quality activities outside this application. This is wrong and will ultimately lead to issues with data quality.

Due to the foundational requirement of IT to support the infrastructure or application, budget will be allocated to IT which includes the data management budget at a much lower and unrealistic level.

However, once the project is initiated and questions start being asked, IT defers to the business and the business resists. IT is flummoxed by the business push back while the business is confounded by the expectation to stretch it’s resources with no additional budget.

Often IT decision makers take ownership of a data management capability which rightly belongs to the business even when there is an active and willing business subject matter expert who should be responsible.

This causes conflicts especially if the business areas are not involved early in the project. Seeking input from the respective business SMEs when a problem occurs in IT implementation is then often met with resistance. The business areas and SMEs will resist due to budget constraint and resource allocation.

Separating business and IT capabilities and allocating budget to both is always key to ensure the right business owners are executing the respective capabilities. This ensures successful delivery of the project and delivers value to the organization

There are many instances where the business is required to provide the definitions while IT is required to implement the applications of the business definitions. Both can work in harmony when roles are allocated effectively.

An illustration of typical responsibilities for various capabilities is shown below;

So whose budget is it anyway? The answer lies strongly in the correct separation of roles and responsibilities.