Using DCAM as a framework without immediately executing it as an assessment is reasonable. However, some organizations do a baseline assessment, as it can be a good way to educate the DM stakeholders. If the organization has limited funds, the focus should be on training the stakeholders before funding an assessment.

If DQ is the primary focus, the target is to simultaneously advance several of the other Components to support the DQ efforts.

Strategy: what data is most important to the business? Focus on that data first.

Program: Are the resources and funding necessary for that data available?

Business & Data Architecture: Are business SMEs involved to ensure the data is understood in the context of the data producer and data consumer business process? Does the organization have the ability to inventory and catalog the data while capturing base level metadata?

DQ Management: Is the organization able to generate DQ rules and measure the quality of the data? Has the organization adopted a Dimension of Quality model? Does an issues-management process exist to prioritize and control defects to a resolution?

Data Governance: How are authoritative decisions made about these processes, what data is in scope, and how are the DQ rules and issues adopted into the management process?

Data Control Environment: if the organization can do all the above in collaboration, it will have established a control-environment around the initial data in scope. Then it can expand to the next set of priority data.

The use of the term Construct in DCAM is in contrast to the term Model. The official definitions of these two terms are in the EDMC DM Business Glossary. The commentary that is in both definitions explains the relationship between the terms. 

The listing of Processes, Tools & Constructs in DCAM intends to identify things that are likely needed to execute the capabilities described in DCAM from an industry-standard perspective. As our members develop these best practice examples, they will be vetted by the DCAM Governance structure and posted in the DCAM Knowledge Portal. We will link to the best practice from DCAM. An industry-standard best practice will always need customization for execution into your organization.