Definition An organised inventory of an organisation's data, describing what exists, where it lives and who owns it.
Example A catalogue might list an Orders dataset alongside its owner, refresh frequency, data sensitivity and permitted uses.
See how it works Dataset Orders
Owner Operations
Example metadata: refreshed nightly; access requires approval.
Check your understanding Common mistake: Finding a dataset in a catalogue does not mean you have permission to access it.
What should you check before using a dataset?
Show explanation Its meaning, owner, freshness, quality and permitted use.
For your role Your role Choose your role Accounts payable Credit controllers FP&A analysts Finance business partners Finance directors and CFOs Financial controllers Management accountants Payroll specialists Account executives Sales managers Sales operations analysts Sales representatives Bid and tender managers Commercial directors New to business Pricing analysts Revenue managers Senior leaders Campaign managers Communications managers Customer insight analysts Digital marketing managers Marketing analysts Marketing directors HR business partners HR directors Learning and development managers People analysts People managers Recruiters Operations analysts Operations directors Operations managers AI product managers Heads of product Product analysts Product managers Product owners Machine learning engineers Analytics engineers Data analysts Data architects Data engineers Data governance leads Data privacy officers Data scientists Information architects Platform engineers Report builders Business analysts Corporate development managers Heads of strategy Strategy analysts
Choose your role to see what this term means in your work.
Why it matters It saves time spent searching for data and reduces use of the wrong source.
Where it is used Data platforms, governance programmes and data discovery.
