{"id":206455,"date":"2022-11-17T12:15:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T15:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/?p=206455"},"modified":"2022-12-16T15:52:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T18:52:21","slug":"data-mesh-learnings-and-challenges-a-retrospective-with-50-people-from-different-organisations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/data-mesh-learnings-and-challenges-a-retrospective-with-50-people-from-different-organisations\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Mesh learnings and challenges: a retrospective with 50 people from different organisations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the <a href=\"https:\/\/martinfowler.com\/articles\/data-mesh-principles.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Data Mesh<\/a> common challenges? What are the people involved with Data Mesh saying about it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many people are talking about Data Mesh. But there are even more people asking for references on the topic. I have been involved in many Data Mesh engagements and I will be sharing more about it in future articles. In this short article, I share the result of a Data Mesh retrospective with 50 people from different organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In October 2022 I had the pleasure to be with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/zhamak-dehghani\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zhamak Dehghani<\/a> in a 20 hour Data Mesh training. It was not the first time I helped her with the Data Mesh training, and, most likely, not the last one. I will try adjusting my agenda so I can be with her on her future trainings. She has been doing it once every other month as she is super busy with many engagements. More info on the next trainings <a href=\"https:\/\/dddeurope.academy\/data-mesh-zhamak-dheghani\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are quite a few amazing benefits for me to be part of the training:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">listen again and again about Data Mesh from its creator,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">share a little on my experience with Data Mesh on-boarding and inceptions (very little as her training is already full of amazing contents; at least, I share a few hints and links to help the participants)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">listen to the avid participants as they share conversations, questions, challenges, learnings and valuable tips about Data Mesh in their organisations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the last training, I did a quick retrospective for the participants. The result of the retrospective reveals important information for all of the training participants. But I realised these revelations are useful for many people getting started in Data Mesh. So I decided to share the results in this post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I used two activities to gather the information I am sharing with you. They are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Slider on the Data Mesh principles , and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anchors and engine for data mesh in your organisation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Slider on the Data Mesh principles<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started by asking the group to have a quick recap about all the teachings Zhamak shared on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtworks.com\/about-us\/events\/webinars\/core-principles-of-data-mesh#:~:text=Data%20Mesh%20is%20founded%20in,a%20%22federated%20computational%20governance%22.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">four principles of Data Mesh<\/a>: <strong>Domain Ownership, Data as a Product, Self-serve Data Platform <\/strong>and<strong> Federated Computational Governance<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then I asked each participant to vote on the mostly challenging principle for the Data Mesh transformation in their organisation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The image below is the result for the voting session.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-206460\" src=\"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/11\/data-mesh-retrospective-sliders-principles.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"241\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Domain ownership<\/strong> and <strong>Federated computational governance<\/strong> are considered to be the most challenging principles. Then, <strong>Data as a product<\/strong> and <strong>Self serve data platform<\/strong> are considered to be challenging, but a little less challenging.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The result from this group (about 50 people from different organisations) is very representative. I have seen many groups going through the same activity. In general, people are having more challenges in Domain ownership and Federated computational governance than Data as a product and Self serve data platform.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One very important aspect: this activity is only for raising awareness and starting important conversations. These principles are not to be worked on in isolation.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anchors and engine for Data Mesh in your organisation<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I asked two very straight-forward questions: In the context of Data Mesh, What are the things pushing you forward? What are the things holding you back?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is the image, result of the Data Mesh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.funretrospectives.com\/anchors-and-engine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Anchor and Engine activity<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-206459\" src=\"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/11\/data-mesh-retrospective-anchors-engine.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"297\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Please note the colour coding for each of the Data Mesh principles (same color used in the previous image activity).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is the text from all the notes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engine, the things moving you forward:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clear separation of the concerns, ownership, responsibilities<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perception of the data from different perspective, multiple ways of use cases<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a lot of technical challenges that engineers will enjoy\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creation of pizza teams<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing data as value and product<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transformation to product teams<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flexibility, scalability<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Setting standards and SLO&#8217;s on data will be very happily accepted<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having teams organised in Value Streams, or something similar and already have DevOps maturity to enable automation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shared responsibility over common goal against centralised committees and processes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anchor, the things holding you back:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our landscape the distance from operational domain to data domain is very big<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organisational Mindset and culture<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting a common understanding of domains in the organisation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No ready-made tools to choose yet, building complete infrastructure will take huge efforts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Convince org to change when not organised around domain today<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cross company initiative against Data team activity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Required mind shift in business regarding ownership<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defining\u00a0 the products<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No familiarity, nowhere to show a working example<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create Data Products that are valuable on their own<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have to sell it without complicated words..too many new words in this workshop<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Centralised thinking of existing data teams<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No existing products yet<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DevOps maturity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to justify required setup \/ resources\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maturity of data platform, mastering of the technologies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organisational politics &amp; mindset<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expectation of centralised governance and approaches which is not happening<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data office not in line with decentralisation of governance<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This short article has no intention to tell you how to handle each of these things holding you back, or to share how to take advantage of the forces pulling you forward. My main intention is to share with you how other people pursuing Data mesh are feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Zhamak says so clearly: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cData M;esh is in its infancy. Please stay open to and aware of many advances in this area. More important than any specific practice or tool is to adhere to the Data Mesh principles.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people are talking about Data Mesh. But there are even more people asking for references on the topic. I have been involved in many Data Mesh engagements and I will be sharing more about it in future articles. In this short article, I share the result of\u00a0 a retrospective with 50 people from different organisations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1919],"tags":[],"inception_activities":[],"colaboradores":[],"class_list":["post-206455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agile-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206455"},{"taxonomy":"inception_activities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inception_activities?post=206455"},{"taxonomy":"colaboradores","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caroli.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/colaboradores?post=206455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}