Data management and governance for a state health and human service agency

Challenge:

A state Health and Human Services (HHS) agency needed to identify, document, and standardize information from over 160 databases.

Solution:

BerryDunn experts:

• Defined and facilitated the implementation of a common data governance structure
• Gathered information on HHS systems documentation, interviewed HHS personnel, and researched state technology
• Developed tools to assist in the automated creation and analysis of data dictionaries for over 160 databases
• Assisted over 50 data representatives in standardizing data dictionaries into a standard template
• Conducted analysis to identify field-level information that appears similar, duplicative, and/or unique within each data dictionary
• Developed a data integration roadmap that details objective recommendations for integrating and retiring the HHS departments’ databases, as well as the HHS departments’ data management strategies

Outcome:

With a data management strategy in place, the agency gained an understanding of the technologies supporting its data architecture, the vendors managing technology, the data owners, and the requirements for effective stewardship of the data architecture.