There are several roles that are pertinent to data management. Remember that these are roles, not positions. Small organizations may have a single person taking on every one of these roles whereas a large organization could have dozens of fine-grained positions. Remember, context counts. We define the following key roles for Disciplined Agile® (DA™) data management:
- Database Administrator (DBA). Operates, supports, and evolves existing legacy data sources. Collaborates with delivery teams, ideally as a member of those teams, to ensure that data sources are developed and evolved in a quality manner.
- Data analyst. Explores existing data sources to understand their structure, content, and semantics. Interprets data from multiple sources and turns it into information that can be used by decision makers within your organization.
- Data manager. A functional manager who leads the data management team, guiding the data-oriented activities with the organization. Often leads the long-term refactoring of legacy data sources to help pay down data-oriented technical debt. Collaborates with others within your organization to ensure that data quality is maintained and enhanced across disparate data sources, leading the development of any data-oriented guidance.