How to self-onboard as a Collibra user
A key challenge when evaluating & comparing catalogs (one of the key tool categories contributing to Data Governance) is finding a way to bypass the pitching of pre-sales teams that seek to convince you a product has all the functionality you could ever ask for, and more. It’s incredibly easy to open the door to a sales conversation with any of the enterprise products out there (just google the name, and click the massive glowing “Schedule a demo!” button)… but beware the difficulty of ever being able to close at again. Being such a fast-growing arena with so many contenders fighting to be first mover, falling over each other to offer Proof Of Concept and demo phases, you may soon find you’re overwhelmed.
One of the best ways to get hands-on evaluation done without needing to enter that sales pipeline adventure, is to seek out the educational platforms many of these vendors have made available as one of their marketing bids, a way of tempting folks in by creating a sunken cost of time spent studying. In a handful of cases the training is its own reward, and retains a high-level-enough tone bestowing the kinds of skills that are transferrable to other data catalog & data governance areas, irrespective of whether you stay the course with that specific studied tool, or not.
Of particular note in my trialling of the various learning platforms available, was Collibra’s. As early as March 2019 it was already a fully-fledged site with credits, a social/community element that enables discussion & co-learning, and a highly polished presentational style with great interactivity during each lesson and/or quiz. I’ve included it in the resources list below.
Resources:
- Collibra University online academy offering numerous certifications and “quests” (many of which can be accessed & completed at no cost).
- It’s like Amazon. But for Data recording from Dan Sholler’s Strata Data Conference 2017.
- Enhancing Your Hybrid Data Lake with Catalog & Governance recording from product demo given at re:Invent 2018.
- How to Organize Data Assets with a Data Catalog recording from CDQ AG webinar series 2020.
- Data Governance and Data Architecture – Alignment and Synergies recording from DAS webinar series 2020.
