WE OFTEN BEGIN a new year by reflecting on the past and planning for the future, resolving to dedicate or rededicate ourselves to the disciplines of a healthier lifestyle. Similarly, organizations benefit from taking stock of their disciplines — especially when it comes to the way they deal with data, information and knowledge management. If money is an organization’s lifeblood and people its muscles, data is the nervous system. What resolutions would discipline and strengthen an organization’s nervous system? Let me suggest five practical resolutions. 1. Conduct a data privacy audit. Given that identity theft and government data loss are of public concern, you should conduct an audit of the privacy vulnerability of your data assets. If you have a completed Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model, this is easy. It can be done by a simple query of the data attributes exposed by each information technology system against your privacy policy.
