Frameworks
Practical frameworks that turn data governance and data management principles into steps an organisation can take.
When to run SixBy6
Each situation puts different parts of your organisation under pressure. Which one is yours?
- A regulator or auditor has asked about your dataYou need to show what you hold, why you hold it and who is accountable, before they find the gaps for you.Spheres under most pressure: Legal · Policy · Data
- You are bringing in AIBefore a model touches your data, know where that data came from, who built the model and who answers for its decisions.Spheres under most pressure: AI · Data · Technology (external)
- Your data is moving to the cloud or across bordersA new country means new laws, new governments and new suppliers between you and your data.Spheres under most pressure: Political · Legal · Technology (internal)
- You have had a breach or a near missFind out whether it was one failure or a pattern, and what else is exposed the same way.Spheres under most pressure: Technology (internal) · Process · People
- You are new in a data leadership roleGet an honest baseline in your first ninety days, so your plan starts from the evidence and not from opinions.Spheres under most pressure: People · Policy · Data
- A merger, an acquisition or a restructureTwo sets of systems, owners and rules have to become one. See where they will clash before they do.Spheres under most pressure: Process · Data · Economic
- You need the budget for data governancePut a rating and a list of named risks in front of the people who decide, not a request for more resources.Spheres under most pressure: Economic · People · Policy
- A university or public body holding personal dataResearch and citizen data carry political, social and legal weight that a private firm rarely feels.Spheres under most pressure: Political · Social · Legal
Data governance and data management, in practice
Know where your data is vulnerable.
The Data Professionals creates frameworks for putting data governance and data management into practice. Start with a free check built on The Data Professionals SixBy6™. It rates how well your organisation looks after its data, from 1 to 5, across six forces outside it and six capabilities inside it.
24 statements in plain language. Your answers stay in your browser.
| People | Policy | Process | Tech | Data | AI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Political | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Economic | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Social | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Technology | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Legal | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Environmental | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
SixBy6
The Data Professionals SixBy6™
Data is exposed to more than technology. SixBy6 sets six forces outside your organisation against six capabilities inside it. Where a weak outside force meets a weak inside capability, the grid marks a pressure point. It applies to any industry. The six outside forces are those of PESTLE analysis, after Francis J. Aguilar (1967).
Six outside your organisation
Political
How exposed your data is to the governments and political conditions of the countries where it is stored and processed.
Economic
Whether data management is funded, its costs are understood and it can withstand supplier and price shocks.
Social
Whether the people your data describes, and the public, would accept how you collect and use it.
Technology
Whether you keep pace with technology you do not control: providers, attack methods, suppliers and new tools.
Legal
Whether you know the laws and contracts that bind your data, and can show you comply.
Environmental
Whether your data stays available through physical hazards, and what it costs the environment to keep.
Six inside your organisation
People
Whether the people who own, handle and decide on data are named, skilled and supported.
Policy
Whether the organisation’s own rules for data are written, known, followed and kept current.
Process
Whether the way work is done creates, changes and uses data in a controlled, repeatable way.
Technology
Whether the systems that hold your data are documented, protected, monitored and recoverable.
Data
Whether the data itself is known, defined, of good quality and traceable.
AI
Whether you know which AI touches your data, who built it, what it was fed and who is accountable for it.
A way to remember the twelve: P4EST2LE-AI-D. Four Ps (Political, People, Policy, Process), two Es, one S, two Ts, one L, then AI and Data.
The rating
Each sphere is rated from 1 to 5.
- 1.0 to 1.7Exposed
Vulnerabilities are largely unmanaged and often unknown.
- 1.8 to 2.5Reactive
Problems are handled when they surface, by whoever is available.
- 2.6 to 3.3Defined
Practices are agreed and documented, but applied unevenly.
- 3.4 to 4.1Managed
Practices are applied consistently and measured.
- 4.2 to 5.0Resilient
Practices are embedded, tested and improved as routine.
Weighted to your organisation
A government department is not exposed in the way a private company is, and a research team does not work like a field crew. Five questions about your organisation set how much each sphere counts in your result.
Political is calibrated to your countries
Your answers are only half of the Political rating. The other half comes from published World Bank governance data for the country where your data is stored and the country where it is processed.
AI looks at where the model came from
You receive feedback based on who created the AI model you rely on, where its developer is based, and where the data that feeds it comes from.
Vulnerabilities are named
A rating can hide a serious gap. Every weak point is listed as a vulnerability, graded critical, blind spot, high or moderate, with the action that closes it.
Two levels of result
A plain answer first. The detail when you need it.
Quick check Free
24 statements in everyday language. You receive one rating out of 5, your SixBy6 grid, and up to three areas to look at first.
Full assessment and report
All 60 statements, weighted to your organisation, with every pressure point and vulnerability set out, and the action that closes each. Add an hour with a Data Professional to read it with you.
What we do
Frameworks you can carry out, and the training to use them.
Training
Online courses in data governance and data management, delivered through learning platforms.
Assessment
A structured view of where your data is vulnerable, and what to fix first.
Membership and coaching
Courses, working tools, a community and coaching for the people who carry the work of governing and managing data.
About us
Built by people who have run data governance, not only written about it.
The Data Professionals is a collective of practitioners who have led data governance, data quality and data management programmes in financial services, telecoms, insurance, utilities and the public sector. SixBy6 and KOPTUA come from that work: what held up in practice, and what did not.
Your answers stay with you
The SixBy6 check runs in your browser. Your answers are not sent to us or to anyone else.
Clear prices
Every service shows its full price before you order. Prices are final, and no VAT is added.
Your information is protected
We handle personal information in line with South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act. Read our privacy policy.
Real people answer
Questions go to experienced Data Governance and Master Data professionals, not a bot.
Contact