Derilinx worked with Education and Training Boards Ireland to deliver a Data Maturity Assessment – OGP Framework in Action!

ETBI and data maturity

Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) are the national representative body established to collectively represent the sixteen Education and Training Boards (ETBs) and promote their interests, which is recognised by the Minister for the purposes of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013.

The ETB sector is embarking on a journey towards alignment with the Irish Public Service Data Strategy 2019-2023. This strategy details in turn how all public service bodies with significant volumes of data should carry out a data maturity assessment.

The objective of this data maturity assessment was to help both the ETBs and the Data Governance Steering Group within ETBI to recognise strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats arising from the use of data within and through the sector.

How Derilinx provided a data maturity assessment for ETBI

ETBI leveraged the OGP Framework for Technical Services for Open Data and Data Management to avail of Derilinx services and set the DMA process into action.

Derilinx embarked on a collaborative data maturity assessment journey with ETBI, across the six identified functional areas across different ETBs. The assessment aimed to evaluate the level of data maturity within these areas and uncover opportunities for improvement.

The ETBI data maturity assessment included the following steps:

1. Kick-off with project leads:

Introduction to the work involved for ETBI and the ETBs. Then planning and the resources needed. And also tuning the list of questions to include in the data maturity assessment.

2. Kick-off with DMA participants:

To ensure all participants understood the task involved, the assessment, the assessment’s objectives and the work involved.

3. Workshops and Data Collection:

Representatives from each functional area across different ETBs participated in workshops, where their insights and thoughts on data maturity were used to get collective agreement on the answers to the questions. This activity resulted in 6 completed data maturity assessments, each one containing 45 questions across 11 different data knowledge areas.

4. Evaluation and Analysis:

Derilinx’s team analysed the completed assessments to understand the current state of data maturity within the ETB functional areas. This included knowledge areas such as data governance, data security, document management, and data analytics capabilities.

5. Reporting and Recommendations:

Building upon the assessment findings, and with feedback from ETBI, Derilinx created a set of actionable recommendations designed to address the DataGovernance Steering Group’s particular needs and goals. These were packaged as part of a detailed report given background context, a detailed look at current issues, a comparison across functional areas, and the steps in carrying out the recommendations.

Looking ahead

This data maturity assessment is the first step on the journey towards building a high-quality data management solution with embedded data maturity across the ETBs. It is crucial to recognise that the data management journey is continuous and requires ongoing observation, maintenance, and updates to adapt to evolving data threats, tools, opportunities, and environments. It can also help them to align with relevant Government data strategies, such as the Public Service Data Strategy 2019-2023 and the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019.

You can find all public projects coming from the OGP Framework here.