The Best Practice Program objective is to develop the How – documenting the experiences of data management practitioners to support the development and refinement of standard Data Management processes and tools across the full range of capabilities in the DCAM Framework.

What is a Workgroup

Workgroups are formed around specific topics to create a set of deliverables that will be made available to all members. Workgroups are made up of a small set of subject matter experts (SMEs) to support speed to best practice. However, all members will be able to see and provide feedback to the best practice work-in-process.

The goals of a best practice workgroup are as follows:

• Deliver value to members aligned to their priorities
• Provide a scalable process to deliver comprehensive knowledge consistently
• Ensure quality control over knowledge
• Enhance the credibility of the knowledge through industry vetting

These Workgroup Guidelines intend to support the leaders of a best practice workgroup to effectively lead a small group of SMEs to develop a member vetted best practice aligned with the DCAM Framework.

Knowledge Development Process

The EDM Council has established the following process for developing knowledge aligned with the DCAM Framework.

Process objectives:

• Establish an industry-standard best practice in alignment with the DCAM Framework
• Follow a consistent, repeatable, and sustainable process of knowledge development
• Empower a small set of SME data practitioners to research and define the industry-standard best practice
• Invite all data practitioners to review and provide feedback as open vetting of the best practice draft
• Apply governance review and approval to maintain alignment with the DCAM Framework and congruence across all related best practice

The high-level steps in the process are as follows:

• Forum Topic – use a forum to collect member examples of possible best practices
• Research Current State – conduct research to document the current state of the issue and established best practice
• Create Workgroup – define the best practice project charter, secure resources, and organize the SME workgroup members
• Facilitate Workgroup – the HEAVY lifting
  • Develop Knowledge – iterate through drafting the best practice with feedback from members
  • Align with DCAM – validate alignment with DCAM, standard language, and congruence to other best practices
  • Governance Approval – obtain approval to publish
• Publish to Members – publish and continually monitor member feedback for continuous improvement of the best practice

The light gray process steps are key deliverables:

• Frame Issue – what is the issue and need for a best practice
• Draft Current State & Project Charter – what is the current state of best practice in the industry along with a Project Charter for governance approval
• Publish Current State & Announce Workgroup – publish current state to full membership for awareness and invite to subscribe to the work-in-process (WIP) forum – this announcement may be ideal for a Member Webinar
• Publish to WIP Forum Topic – publish the WIP periodically to members and process their feedback
• Draft Best Practice – create the draft best practice article using the anatomy of a best practice as the outline
• Workgroup Approval – process all member feedback and obtain workgroup approval to submit the draft best practice for governance approval
• DCAM SteerCo Approval – obtain governance review and permission to publish to members

Organization & Structure

Workgroup – is formed around a specific topic to create a set of deliverables that will be made available to all members. The workgroup membership is by invitation to ensure both deep subject matter expertise and representation from all member categories: large and small institutions, consultants, vendors, and regulators. Membership is a significant commitment by the SME and their organization of both time and subject matter expertise to be actively engaged in the best practice development process.

The recommended workgroup size is ten members. Each member having a delegate can help mitigate the rework required when a member is unable to participate. If their representative is engaged, then continuity can be more easily maintained.

The recommended best practice project scope is a scope that allows the work to be completed in 12 – 16 weeks maximum. Break larger scope into smaller deliverables that can be completed within a shorter time frame.

Workgroup Forum – every workgroup has a forum. All interested members can subscribe to the forum to receive update notifications. The workgroup will periodically publish the best practice work-in-process for review and feedback. All feedback will be processed by the workgroup to develop the best practice further.

DCAM Governance Structure – the final draft Best Practice will be reviewed by the appropriate DCAM governance committee. The approval is contingent on ensuring alignment with the DCAM Framework, previously published best practice content and the DCAM Business Glossary.

Workgroup Membership

Membership in a Work Group is by invitation to ensure both deep subject matter expertise and representation from all member categories: large and small institutions, consultants, vendors, and regulators. Membership is an important commitment by you and your organization of both time and subject matter expertise to actively engage in the Best Practice development process.

Subject Matter Expertise – key SME representing a segment of the membership, together with other members comprising a curated set of expertise to support the development of sound Best Practice recommendations for Data Management. 

Share Best Practice Examples – as a member you are expected to share proposed Data Management Best Practice thought, processes and tools based on your past or present organizational experience.

Commit to Work Group Routines – consistent engagement from all members will be critical to the productivity of the Work Group.

Actively engage – as a SME you are expected to be an active participant…collaborate, contribute and stay connected.

Stay Current – if you are unable to participate in a particular work session, you must do the homework to catch-up with the progress.

Roles & Expectations

The roles defined below are all critical to the success of a best practice workgroup. There are times that a single individual may have the skills necessary to perform more than one role.

Workgroup Lead

The Workgroup Lead is the facilitator of thought leadership. Their role is to set the vision and drive for the creation of the defined deliverables. They may actually facilitate the work sessions or that may be assigned to the Project Manager.

Workgroup Member

Workgroup members are vital to successfully harvesting best practice examples, organizing and vetting to bring practical experience to the formulation of the recommended Best Practice.

Project Manager

The Project Manager will work closely with the Workgroup Lead (if not the same person). The role includes:

• Organizing the project plan and workgroup routines
• Facilitation of the workgroup work sessions (if agreed to with the Workgroup Lead)
• Capturing project documentation
• Monitoring project plan progress
• Capturing project minutes and decision-making logs

Author

Writing is not a team sport. An individual must be designated as the overall author of the best practice article. That does not prohibit written contributions for various individuals but a single person who is knowledgeable of the topic must be empowered to assemble the parts and tell the story.

To help make the writing easier and ultimately the reader experience easier, The EDM Council has adopted a standard outline for the presentation of best practice articles. This outline is defined as The Anatomy of a Best Practice. The knowledge development process is designed to generate the content required to fulfill the outline.

Professional Editor

Even with a single individual assigned the role of author, it is essential to maintain editorial consistency across all the DCAM aligned best practices. The same capabilities required for managing data as an asset apply to manage the knowledge asset of the EDM Council.

A set of Editorial Guidelines have been developed documenting the editorial controls that have been applied to the DCAM Framework and the currently published best practice articles.

Even with these guidelines, some projects will warrant the service of a professional editor to ensure the consistent style and language are followed in the article.

Project Management Boards

A set of project management boards have been created in Monday.com to provide an organizational workflow to assist workgroups in knowledge content development and alignment to EDM Council editorial standards.

As a workgroup forms around a best practice topic, the project management boards are made available to workgroup project managers. Once a workgroup’s membership has been defined, select boards are made available to all members, which allows for the assignment and tracking of tasks, project plan transparency, and organized communication.

Project management boards in Monday.com:

• Project Plan – Describes the process of how a best practice topic moves from a member discussion, through the project plan, and to a final published best practice. Each phase of the project will have a Phase Deliverable that requires approval by the workgroup governance and the DCAM Steering Committee to proceed to the next phase.
• Industry Stakeholder Analysis – Identifies all industry stakeholders aligned to the proposed best practice topic and defines the stakeholder value proposition and the basis for developing a communication plan.
• Member Recruitment – Defines potential members of the workgroup, including their company, title, and which workgroup role would be the best fit according to their industry experience.
• Structure and Members – Defines the members of the workgroup, assigns roles, and provides the contact information.
• Internal Stakeholder Assessment – Identifies all EDM Council stakeholders aligned to the proposed best practice topic and defines the stakeholder value proposition and the basis for developing a communication plan.
• Impacts Detail – Evaluates the People, Process, Data, and Technology impacts that the best practice will have on the aligned stakeholders’ tools and processes. The workgroup identifies the impacts, whether positive or negative and includes recommendations for managing the impacts as part of the adoption plan contained in the best practice.
• Action Items / Open Questions – Tracks action items and open questions identified throughout the project to resolution by assigning responsibility and due dates.
• Watch Items / Issues – Tracks and defines a mitigation plan for possible issues (Watch Item) and known issues (Issues) that have a potential negative impact on the outcome of the project.

• Using a Best Practice (includes the Anatomy of a Best Practice)
• Editorial Guidelines

Revision History

Date	Author	Description
May 2020	Mark McQueen	Transition from Project Charter to Monday.com