Context
Another data stream, another swamp of mismatches, formatting errors, missing values, and contradictory fields. The receiving side knew the drill. We had already defined how to handle each type of data issue. Exception handling was in place. Rejection logic was mapped. Everyone assumed we were in control.
The Drag
Despite the planning, errors kept piling up. Processing was slow. Frustration grew. The data migration team started to look like the blocker. But most of the issues weren’t caused by technical flaws. They came from upstream, from the teams sending in incomplete or inconsistent data.
Still, nobody raised the question.
The Twist
So I asked: “Who owns the data?”
Everyone looked to the receivers, the ones doing the importing, transforming, and cleaning. But that wasn’t the answer. The receivers were responsible for processing. The source teams were responsible for the content.
Once that was said out loud, it clicked.
The sender owns the data.
And the sender is responsible for its quality.
The Insight
Once ownership was clarified, everything changed.
We showed upper management that the bottleneck wasn’t in the transformation layer. It was upstream, in departments that were slow to deliver, unclear in structure, or just unprepared.
The technical work didn’t get easier.
But the political landscape shifted.
The right people were now under pressure, not the wrong ones.
Ownership isn’t a slogan. It’s an address. And if you send data, it belongs to you until it lands clean.