DMBOK

Purpose

Use the DAMA Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK) to plan and run data management as a discipline: defining who decides about data, how it is modelled, stored, secured, integrated and described, and how its quality is assured. Its best-known image is the DAMA wheel: eleven knowledge areas with data governance at the centre, because governance coordinates all the others.

Frameworks & Standards

Item	Value
Framework ID	dmbok
Category	Enterprise Architecture — Data Management
Version	2.0.0
Owner	DAMA International
Edition	DAMA-DMBOK: Data Management Body of Knowledge, 2nd edition (2017); check for later revisions

The Eleven Knowledge Areas

• Data governance (at the centre): authority, decision rights and oversight for data.
• Data architecture.
• Data modelling and design.
• Data storage and operations.
• Data security.
• Data integration and interoperability.
• Document and content management.
• Reference and master data.
• Data warehousing and business intelligence.
• Metadata management.
• Data quality.

Core Principles

• Data is an asset and should be managed with the same discipline as other assets.
• Governance sits at the centre, coordinating decision rights across all knowledge areas.
• Accountability belongs to the business. Data owners and stewards come from the business, supported by IT.
• Quality is managed, not assumed. Define quality requirements and measure them.
• Metadata makes data usable: without it, data cannot be found, understood or trusted.

Applications & Use Cases

Use Case	Application	Knowledge Area
Starting a data governance programme	Define owners, stewards, councils and policies	Data governance
Conflicting customer records	Establish a master data hub and matching rules	Reference and master data
Untrusted reports	Measure and remediate data quality	Data quality
Finding and understanding data	Build a data catalogue	Metadata
Privacy and regulatory obligations	Classify data and apply protections	Data security
Analytics platform	Design warehouse, lake or lakehouse	Warehousing and BI

Usage Guidelines

• Assess maturity across the knowledge areas and prioritise by business pain.
• Appoint data owners and stewards from the business, with defined decision rights.
• Write data policies and standards and enforce them through governance.
• Define critical data elements and measure their quality.
• Maintain a business glossary and data catalogue.

Prompt Template

You are designing a data management programme (DAMA-DMBOK, 2nd ed.).

BUSINESS PROBLEM: [[...]]
GOVERNANCE: owners · stewards · council · decision rights · policies
PRIORITY KNOWLEDGE AREAS (current maturity → target):
CRITICAL DATA ELEMENTS and quality rules:
METADATA: glossary · catalogue · lineage
SECURITY AND PRIVACY: classification and controls
ROADMAP:

Ethical Guidelines

• Data ethics is part of governance: consider fairness, consent and the people the data describes.
• Classify and protect personal data in line with GDPR, CCPA and other applicable law.
• Do not repurpose data beyond the purposes for which it was collected without a lawful basis.

Testing Strategy

• Automated data quality checks on critical data elements.
• Periodic access reviews for sensitive data.

Success Metrics

• Critical data elements meeting quality targets.
• Share of data assets with an owner and catalogue entry.
• Time for analysts to find and trust data.

Collaboration Protocol

• Inbound from: data-architect · governance-specialist · data-scientist
• Outbound to: enterprise-architect for architecture alignment; CSO office for data security and privacy
• Cross-framework: GDPR and CCPA for privacy obligations; Zachman's What column for data models; COBIT for wider I&T governance.

Related Skills

• composable-skills/frameworks/gdpr/SKILL.md — personal data obligations
• composable-skills/frameworks/ccpa/SKILL.md — California privacy rights
• composable-skills/frameworks/cobit/SKILL.md — I&T governance
• composable-skills/frameworks/zachman-framework/SKILL.md — classifying data models

Reference Materials

• DAMA International. (2017). DAMA-DMBOK: Data Management Body of Knowledge (2nd ed.). Technics Publications.

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