About Data Management Planning

Kryštof Komanec

July 27th, 2023

3 min read

Data Management Plan is a document that describes everything related to data in a project. It provides metadata about the project, what it is about, and who is working on it. Its creation should be incorporated into any data-related project to ensure coherence.

Data Management Planning has been a practice since the 1970s, initially applied in aeronautical and engineering projects. It has since made its way to various fields and its importance has continuously grown, moreover in today's digital age, it is more crucial than ever.

Data Management Planning is essential part of a Data Life Cycle, as it is described by RDMkit. Even though Data Life Cycle is indeed a cycle, planning should be the entry point of any project involving some sort of data. That is because quality of outputs produced by all the remaining steps is affected by the effort we put into the planning phase.

It is also important to mention that the Data Management Plan should not remain in the state it was created but should evolve with the project and change during its lifecycle to ensure the correctness of the data.

We can benefit from preparing a good Data Management Plan in many ways:

• When we go through the process of creating a comprehensive Data Management Plan, we thoroughly evaluate all inputs and outputs of the project, who are the people involved in the project and what are their roles and responsibilities, if we have gathered all necessary equipment and expertise we might need to process the data and much more.
• By collecting all relevant information, we can easily identify any deficiencies or problems and proactively address or prevent them which will mitigate any possible issues later in the project, decreasing cost of resolving them.
• By consolidating all available information about the data produced or reused during the project into the Data Management Plan, we can ensure correctness, accuracy, completeness, and reliability of the data. Additionally, following FAIR practices will make our data findable, accessible, and interoperable, significantly enhancing its reusability and thus saving us money.
• Preparing a Data Management Plan is usually required by funders, so if we want to get the grants, we have to prepare it anyway. However, good researchers will understand the benefits that creating a Data Management Plan brings to the project and will do it for those benefits anyway.

With the FAIR Wizard, we can define our own Data Management Plan in a way that fits our organization. We can create a Knowledge Model which is built from questions that will gather all the information we need from the researchers. Using Project Templates, we can prepare a project for the researchers with everything set up.

Then, with the help of Document Templates, generate output documents in formats most suitable for us or our funder. One Project can serve as a database, and more Document Templates can be applied to it, outputting different formats of documents, such as PDF, Word Document, or even machine-actionable formats such as JSON or RDF/XML, among many others.

Almost everything is customizable and can be tailored to your organization or funder's needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the significance of a Data Management Plan cannot be overstated, as it serves as a comprehensive guide to managing data in any project. Data Management Planning is a crucial process that ensures our projects are well-prepared and that the data, outputs, and results are correct, accurate, complete, and reliable. The FAIR Wizard offers a powerful environment for creating coherent, comprehensive, and genuinely helpful Data Management Plans.

With its capabilities, we can confidently navigate the complexities of managing data, ensuring adherence to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) to enhance the overall quality and impact of our research. Embracing the FAIR Wizard empowers us to tackle data management with efficiency and precision, ultimately contributing to the success and credibility of our projects.