What is Critical Data Element?
Critical Data Element or CDE is a type of Business Term in the Data Governance space which are crucial to be successful in the business operation.CDE’s are Industry and Business line specific. The concept of Critical Data Element is described in the second edition of DAMA-DMBOK (DAMA-DMBOK 2) by DAMA International in the topics related to the Data Quality Knowledge Area.
Well, based on the definition it is easy to digest this topic but practical implementation is far from this. It is a complicated process since a lot of Business Domain knowledge, as well as Data Management background, is required for this.
Critical Data Elements are really useful for Regulatory Reporting, Risk Aggregation such as BCBS 239.
How to define a CDE:
It can start with a simple business term but with the below set of supporting it can have a lot of semantics associated with it.
- The element name
- A business description
- A business Hierarchy
- Data quality dimensions
- CDE & Business Ontology
- Stakeholders
- Privacy criteria
- Other key relationships
A CDE rationalization matrix is a great way to prioritize the CDE.
Assessment of CDE:
CDE in action:
With the help of a Data Catalog, you can publish your CDE to the Business Glossary wherein it can be linked to multiple Data Asset. The usage of a CDE can be tracked with Data Lineage ( Both Business & Technical ).
The DQ stat associated with CDE can give a lot of confidence to the users to perform their tasks.
Conclusion:
CDE is a very important aspect of Data Management, so it is always useful to define CDE based on the program you will be running. It is also a great way to scope your Data Management Initiative to be agile.
