Data and Information Strategy
Year: 2020
Scope and summary of activities
As a scientific data-driven organisation, the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) aspired to apply more disciplined data and information management techniques, to enable the MDBA to improve its decision making and provide greater transparency to the Australian community.
The MDBA engaged Strategic Reform to deliver a data and information strategy to establish more effective management of its data and information assets. As a scientific data-driven organisation, the MDBA requires high-quality data and information to make evidence-based decisions on the health of the Basin.
In response to this need, Strategic Reform conducted a review of existing organisational plans, legislation, strategies, and data architecture. Our team conducted extensive consultation across and external to the MDBA to identify pain-points and opportunities for improvement. The outputs from the user research were identified and synthesised into strategic priorities and initiatives.
Strategic Reform produced the following deliverables under this engagement:
- Discovery Report – Assessed and documented strengths and gaps within the current state environment in alignment with MDBA’s strategic direction and business needs
- Data Strategy – provided the vision for the next four years and actions that are needed to improve data acquisition and management practices
- Roadmap – articulated the strategic initiatives ahead of the program to improve data management practices and generate more meaningful insights
- Program Plan, schedule, resourcing, and costings.
Outcomes and Benefits
The MDBA’s Data and Information Strategy provided a visible and achievable roadmap to deliver tangible improvements to the quality and timeliness of data and information collected, used, and published by the MDBA. It also provided the MDBA with the appropriate culture, governance, and tools to support confident decision making and improve their data transparency and openness.
