# data management

> disciplines related to managing data as a resource

**Wikidata**: [Q1149776](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1149776)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_management)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/data-management

## Summary
Data management is the discipline of managing data as a resource, encompassing activities around the entire data lifecycle. It involves organizing, storing, protecting, and maintaining data to ensure its availability, integrity, and security for business operations and decision-making.

## Key Facts
- Data management is classified as a type of management activity and is sometimes considered a job activity
- It has 29 Wikipedia sitelinks across multiple languages including English, Spanish, German, and Arabic
- The UMLS CUI identifier for data management is C0596404
- It is described by the Open Science Thesaurus as a discipline related to managing data as a resource
- Data management is practiced by data managers and is a subclass of information management
- The Freebase ID for data management is /m/038_34
- It has a Microsoft Academic ID (discontinued) of 1668388
- The MESH descriptor ID is D000079803 with tree codes L01.399.375, L01.462.750.233, and L01.470.563

## FAQs
### Q: What is data management?
A: Data management is the discipline of managing data as a resource, involving activities around the entire data lifecycle including organizing, storing, protecting, and maintaining data for business operations and decision-making.

### Q: Who practices data management?
A: Data management is practiced by data managers, who are professionals responsible for overseeing an organization's data lifecycle and ensuring data quality, security, and accessibility.

### Q: What are the main components of data management?
A: Data management includes related disciplines such as data governance, data integration, data warehousing, master data management, data migration, and metadata management, all working together to handle data as a strategic resource.

## Why It Matters
Data management is critical in today's digital economy because organizations increasingly rely on data-driven decision making. Without proper data management, businesses cannot ensure data quality, security, or accessibility, leading to poor decisions, compliance risks, and operational inefficiencies. As data volumes continue to grow exponentially, effective data management enables organizations to extract value from their data assets, maintain regulatory compliance, and gain competitive advantages through analytics and insights. It serves as the foundation for business intelligence, artificial intelligence applications, and digital transformation initiatives across all industries.

## Notable For
- Serves as the foundational discipline for all data-related activities in modern organizations
- Encompasses over 20 specialized sub-disciplines including data governance, data integration, and master data management
- Has established standardized classifications through UMLS, MESH, and other medical and scientific taxonomies
- Connects directly to information management as a parent discipline while also relating to job activities
- Supported by specialized software companies like Supermetrics and Funnel that provide data management solutions

## Body
### Core Definition and Classification
Data management is defined as disciplines related to managing data as a resource. It is classified as a type of management activity and is sometimes considered a job activity, practiced specifically by data managers. The discipline has established taxonomies across multiple classification systems including UMLS (C0596404), MESH (D000079803), and Freebase (/m/038_34).

### Related Disciplines and Hierarchy
Data management sits within a broader hierarchy of information-related disciplines. It is a subclass of information management and connects to various specialized fields including analytics, content management, master data management, data fusion, data governance, data integration, dataflow, data cleansing, schema migration, data normalization, data roundtripping, data classification, database administration, data migration, research data management, data synchronization, data reporting, metadata management, data enrichment, and data sovereignty.

### Industry Applications and Companies
The data management field supports numerous software companies and research initiatives. Notable organizations include Supermetrics, a Finnish software company founded in 2013 with 400 employees as of 2025, and Funnel, a Swedish software company founded in 2014 with 228 employees as of 2021. Research initiatives like the Saxon Research Data Management Initiative (SaxFDM) and academic environments like nodegoat also contribute to the field.

### Academic and Research Context
Data management is studied and practiced by computer scientists and researchers including Norman Paton, a British computer science professor at the University of Manchester born in 1964, and Balder ten Cate, a computer scientist, professor, researcher, and musician born in 1979. The field also includes specialized systems like time.IO, a time series data management system.

### Standards and Documentation
The discipline is documented across multiple languages (Arabic, Azerbaijani, Czech, Welsh, Danish, German, English, Spanish, Estonian, Persian) and has established common categories on Wikimedia Commons. It is described by sources including the Open Science Thesaurus and has established thesaurus IDs in various classification systems including STW for economics (30405-5) and Art & Architecture Thesaurus (300379871).

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## References

1. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
2. [Source](http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/TSO-NJ1CVNL6-F)
3. UMLS 2023
4. Quora
5. [OpenAlex](https://docs.openalex.org/download-snapshot/snapshot-data-format)