Unclear standards for sharing data across systems can result in significant problems. ScenPro has developed and managed data standardization processes to address the problem of possible mistranslation when data is shared across systems. The effort begins with a data standardization plan to define the process and continues along two parallel tracks:
- The first track involves gathering detailed information on data elements from all the source systems.
- The second track starts with an initial list of desired data elements and then defines data element standards based on the most applicable and best-defined examples from industry sources.
The two tracks reinforce each other. Source systems provide new data elements to be standardized, and the standardization analysis clarifies the information required from source systems. A map and gap analysis identifies where source system data elements do not match the defined standards. The process closes the loop by reporting the analysis results to representatives of the source systems so they can adjust their data elements to comply with the defined standards.