Hello! My name is Matt Davies. I am the Stakeholder Engagement Manager for Data Architecture in the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
My main aim is to promote the work that our team does across the ONS. It is also the reason why a non-Data Architect got themselves involved in helping set up, manage and run the cross-Government Data Architecture Community (we shorten it to GDAC!).
So, what is it?
It's a quarterly meeting for anyone who works in Data Architecture in the Government. We meet to talk about any and all the issues and concerns facing us. Our last meeting was in January 2020 and I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about what happened.
So this edition of GDAC, the 8th one, hosted by the lovely people at HMRC. We had 35 people sign up for this meeting. The attendees come from a range of different Government departments.
Data Architecture Time Machine
One of the key things we wanted to do though in this meeting is agree the direction ahead and where we need to go next. GDAC has been a great place to collaborate and discuss ideas but now these ideas need to be actioned and that became the main thrust around our talk for the day.
I have to rewind the story here to GDAC 7 quickly, but at that meeting we had agreed the four key areas that we needed to focus on: namely: Business Glossaries, Metadata, Data Standards and Data Governance.
However, the next question we had was how to start working on these.
How to get from A to B
Which is where Hiran Basnayake from HMRC came in. He presented his plan for a “road map” for the group. We held a great discussion looking at the points he raised and working out how to get ourselves from where we are to the next steps. This then lead us into a really productive chat about how we do this and then some group sessions designed to tease out some of the action points.
One of the key things we want to make sure of is that we are interacting with the right people and that these groups are clear on the roles and remits we have.
Next up we had a fascinating talking from Helen Baker, Chief Data Officer at HMRC, all around a set of new data sources they’ve been working with and the impact of that on the work that they do.
Why should you go?
It’s an opportunity to meet and engage with others working within the field. As mentioned above there will be more work going on in and around those four areas of interest.
So if you lead a Data Architecture team, or the implementation of data or metadata standards, or even manage business glossaries, then this meeting is for you!
I would encourage anyone who hasn’t been, or anyone who has been thinking about attending to sign up, you won’t regret it
All you have to do is drop an email over to data.architecture@ons.gov.uk and we’ll do the rest.
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