Despite the constant snowballing of data creation, data standardization is “not mission impossible,” according to Dr. James Meng. After working for the Navy for 25 years, Meng recently retired from his Deputy Assistant Secretary position. Since then, he has been working with MIT CDOIQ, and next year he will co-chair the event, Meng told SiliconANGLE’s media team theCUBE.

Meng advised Chief Data Officers (CDOs) to remember that when it comes to data standards, there are no shortcuts. Standardization must be initiated from the onset, and it is not a technology or a strategy. Data standards are the “management of people,” he said.

Data standards a journey, not a step

Meng warned that some will see these standards as micro-management, and he recommended that the CDO not treat standardization like a “mandate.” He emphasized that standardization is not a process completed in one year — or even five years — as the industry has seen with IBM. Data standards are “a journey, not a step” and each “business is unique,” Meng explained.

Meng alerted CDOs to the challenge of interoperable data by “systems you never even thought of.” With operating systems functioning independently, Meng cautioned the major issue is “polished, clean data not being lost” in the process. The key ingredients in the data standardization process are a “common understanding of urgency” and “very good enablers” like open architecture.

The evolution of data standardization in the Federal government

In addition, Meng discussed the evolution of data standardization in the federal government, including the creation of various pieces of legislation, beginning with the 1993 congressional mandate to increase transparency in government financials. More recently, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act was passed in 2010 by the Obama Administration, which focuses more on the modernization of the previous act.

The GPRA calls for more data transparency and accountability, which was continued in an act earlier this year that gets into the “nitty gritty” of both topics. Meng said that these Acts have greatly affected the day-to-day handling of data, particularly in the federal government, which operates “many, many data systems.”

Previously, there were no “standards to bring them together,” but since the creation of “commonly accepted data standards and architecture,” Meng has seen a shift in how the government handles its data. Meng declared that the government has “enough work to keep us busy for decades to come” until the legislation is met in terms of data standardization.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of MITCDOIQ Symposium 2015.

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