Metadata

Metadata is data that describes other data. It captures the context an asset needs in order to be found, understood, trusted, and governed: names and descriptions, schemas and data types, owners and stewards, classification levels, quality scores, lineage relationships, refresh schedules, and usage statistics.

Practitioners commonly distinguish three layers. Technical metadata is harvested from systems — table schemas, column types, pipeline run times. Business metadata is supplied by people — definitions, glossary terms, ownership, classification. Operational metadata is generated by activity — query counts, freshness, quality test results.

For a Saudi Data Management Office, metadata is the raw material of compliance. Nearly every NDMO control that asks an entity to inventory, classify, or assign ownership over data is, in practice, a requirement to capture and maintain metadata, and PDPL obligations such as locating personal data and documenting processing purposes depend on it as well. The key operational decision is automation: metadata harvested continuously from source systems stays current, while manually maintained documentation decays within months. A metadata management capability — typically delivered through a data catalog — is therefore one of the earliest investments a DMO should make.