Implementation Begins

As we stated in Chapter 12, one of the key management challenges of MDM projects is the need to define the project’s success criteria. When asked informally, IT executives may provide very different answers to the question of how to decide if the project is successful, including answers such as “Have better quality data,” “Improve application functionality,” “Achieve regulatory compliance faster,” and “Keep the end users happy.” In practice, MDM projects should be based on a compelling, business strategy–driven and/or IT strategy–driven, agreed-upon and approved business case, and follow an MDM capabilities roadmap with a sound release strategy that defines what will be implemented and deployed, and when. Key components of this roadmap are clearly defined short-term and long-term success criteria that need to be understood and agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Of course, the tasks of defining the road map and success criteria would be so much easier to accomplish if there were a single strategy and solution architecture that works for all MDM implementations. Unfortunately, that is not the case. As we mentioned earlier, MDM projects address multiple, often diverse business requirements, involve a broad spectrum of technical disciplines, and can be extremely complex.