Managing a data product from its conception to ongoing maintenance requires a structured approach. Collibra supports this end-to-end journey through the lifecycle tracker in the lifecycle management.
The lifecycle tracker is available directly on the Data Product asset pages to guide you throughout the lifecycle of your data product. It enforces specific activities that you must complete to advance to the next stage, embedding governance requirements directly into the technical workflow.
Example
To understand how these concepts work in practice, consider the lifecycle of a sample data product, Organization Payments, which begins in the Candidate status.
Core business context
To prevent quality drift across teams, the Data Products lifecycle manager (LCM) enforces governance by default. Before the data product can progress past the Candidate status, it must have complete business context filled out on its Summary tab, including a description, business case, and business value.
Integrated assessments and smart checks
Governance is integrated directly into the development lifecycle to reduce friction and ensure compliance.
- Single-click assessments: You can start and complete governance assessments, such as Validate Business Case, with a single click from the Data Product asset page.
- Smart checks: Automated validation checks ensure that the data product meets defined business and technical requirements. If a check fails, the system blocks the data product from advancing to prevent non-compliant products from being published.
Managing the output port
A data product interacts with the ecosystem through one or more output ports. It cannot move into the Development status unless its linked output port (the Data Product Port asset) is also in the Development status.
In this example, the Data Product Port asset, Organization Payments — Port, has its own lifecycle. To move the port from the Candidate status to the Development status, you must provide technical delivery details, such as the access method and access instructions.
Automated data contract generation
Once the output port is in the Development status, it is ready to be governed by a data contract. The data contract formalizes the agreement by specifying the data structure, format, and service-level objectives.
Instead of drafting a contract from scratch, you can generate a data contract manifest from the Collibra knowledge graph or upload a manifest. Once the contract is created, the port can be moved into the Monitoring status.
Approval and publishing
The data product can now progress through the Development status. Before it can be finalized, the LCM requires formal approval from designated stakeholders. Once approved, moving the data product to the Implemented status automatically publishes it to Data Marketplace.
In this way, the lifecycle tracker ensures that only data products that meet the governance standards are made available to data consumers.
Administrative setup
The structured lifecycle described in the previous example is made possible by configuring your operating model. Administrators must configure the underlying asset layouts to ensure consistent, automated governance across all teams.
At a high level, the setup involves the following steps.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Configure the Data Product asset layout. | Ensure that the Output Ports Viewer widget is visible in the Data Product asset layout. This allows the data product to show the output port cards. |
| 2. Configure the Data Product Port asset layout. | Ensure that the Data Contract Viewer widget is visible in the Data Product Port asset layout. This allows the data product port to show the linked contract details. |
| 3. Configure the Data Contract asset layout. |
Ensure that the Manifest ID and Version attribute types are visible in the Data Contract asset layout. This allows the data contract to show the manifest ID and the active contract version after a contract is generated or uploaded. |
| 4. Configure smart checks and lifecycle activities for asset types. |
Create smart checks and assign required activities, such as the Validate Business Case assessment or stakeholder sign-offs, to specific lifecycle stages. This builds your organization's definition of done directly into the automated lifecycle. |
| 5. Publish asset layouts. | Publish all changes to apply the lifecycle guide, smart checks, and visual displays to relevant asset pages. |