Data Management

Data management is an essential part of managing the entire lifecycle of information and records, and ensuring the long-term accessibility and preservation of information. As a result, most of Millican’s information and records management projects, and especially those involving electronic records management, incorporate data management strategies and processes as part of their quality aspects.

Data management is an important locus between the requirements of business operations, systems development, and records management. It is essential to ensuring the proper collection, assembly, processing, and dissemination of information across an organization. Because data meeting the definition of a record must be maintained, organizations in both the public and private sectors are beginning to recognize the concept of a “record object” and the need to fold it into an overall information management program. Particularly if the data is transaction-oriented, it needs to be packaged within the overall context of the transaction. A data management program is necessary to ensure that these record objects are appropriately created. Data management standards and procedures establish methods for:

• Creating data in a usable form,
• Establishing the quality of data,
• Ensuring the integrity of disseminated data,
• Promoting effective use and re-use of data,
• Measuring the adequacy of data for business purposes, and
• Identifying and maintaining business data as an asset.

In addition to our data management experience within the context of our overall records and information management consulting, Millican has extensive experience with data management, and especially with processes to ensure data quality and integrity, as part of our nuclear power plant experience. The management of data—including metadata definition, software quality assurance, and data assurance and integrity—was fundamental to the mission-critical configuration management programs that Millican helped develop and implement at dozens of nuclear power plants across the U. S.