MetadataOps Kit

MetadataOps

The discipline of running your metadata estate as an operated system, and the role that owns it.

Twenty-two pages, four free tools, no vendor named until the last layer. Read it in order or start where you are.

Start with the introduction if you want the practice explained before the contents.

Reference

The five dimensions and the four bands

Dimensions we score
Dimension
The question
Coverage
What share of the estate has harvested metadata at all?
Resolution
Column level or table level?
Derivation
Parsed from code, or inferred from run logs?
Freshness
Does the record match the live estate today?
Governance state
Owned, versioned, policy-bound, tied to a physical asset?
These describe the metadata. Values, data recency, and pipeline reliability belong to data quality tooling.
Score bands
Band
What you can answer
Described · 0 to 6
Metadata is documentation. Agents answer confidently with no way to check them.
Partial · 7 to 12
The modern slice holds. The edges are dark and the failures are hard to predict.
Traceable · 13 to 16
Provenance across most of the estate, with named exceptions.
Operated · 17 to 20
Agents ground on governed definitions. Auditors get a query result.
Score your estate to find your band.