Catalog Domains

[JoeM]

Data Catalog Best Practices: Domains

Incorta’s data catalog is now generally available! With this new capability, the lifecycle of platform assets can be managed from a single place.

What are Domains? 

Domains in Incorta's Data Catalog provide a hierarchical organizational structure for data assets, enabling logical grouping and management of related content. This structure helps users navigate, discover, and understand data assets based on business context rather than technical implementation.

How to Build a Domain

• Navigate to the Data Catalog section in the top navigation bar
• Click the New button in the top-right corner
• Select Domains from the dropdown menu
• In the Create Domain dialog:
• Enter a Name for the domain (required)
• Select a Parent Domain if this is a sub-domain (or leave as "None" for a top-level domain)
• Navigate to the Owners tab to assign domain owners
• Navigate to the Data Assets tab to associate data assets
• Navigate to the Documentation tab to add descriptive information

To augment domains with ownership and documentation, please review our documentation here.

 

Things to Consider Before Building Your First Domain

• Consider your organizational structure. Since users of your platform are likely to identify and align with a domain within your business, assigning assets similarly can aid in discoverability. 
• Consider the ownership and stewardship of your domains. Even though ownership can be assigned to multiple users at different granularities, organizing by department, function, team, or product can help ensure accountability for domain ownership. 
• Balance breadth and specificity. For domains, there can be two levels of assignment: a parent level and a child level. For the child level, it would be good to consider your sub-domains as the ‘product’ contained within your domain. For example, you may have a ‘Finance’ domain and an ‘Accounts Payable’ subdomain. Since there are two levels, making distinct domains that best guide users to the correct data products is good. 
• Prioritize what to catalog first! You may have a lot of assets in the platform. Pick one area you want to do… and do well! This first experience can be key to how you might wish to construct other domains. 

Things to Consider During the Domain Building

• Settle on an organizational standard for naming conventions, ownership assignment, and required documentation. This way, end users using domain paths for asset discovery will have a consistent experience.
• Use business-friendly terminology. If you are trying to get less technical users to begin leveraging assets, clearly labeling domains and sub-domains and simplifying documentation will make asset discovery more approachable to a non-technical audience. 

Things to Consider After the Domain Building

• Create a plan for managing new assets. Create an intake process to recognize new assets, meet with owners, and correctly catalog them into the appropriate domain (or new domain!)
• Get feedback from end users. The catalog includes options to review and comment on assets, but take it a step further and verify the navigability of domains with your stakeholders early in your journey. 
• Be ready to evolve! It’s no secret that organizations change, and your catalog changes as your organization evolves.