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An open standard does not replace governance

Adopting a data standard settles the exchange format. It says nothing about who is accountable for the data, or what it means.

Illustration: Standards ouverts et gouvernance

Adopting an open standard is often presented as the answer to technical data fragmentation. It does solve part of it: formats, interfaces, portability.

What the standard will not settle for you

A standard does not decide who owns a data family, nor what an attribute means exactly when two departments populate it differently. Those questions remain fully open after migration.

I have seen implementation projects move quickly on the technical side and stop dead on ownership, because it commits responsibilities nobody wanted to take on.

The order that works

Identify owners and fix definitions before migrating anything. A standard applied to data nobody is accountable for produces normalised data that is still just as unusable.