Data Accessibility Benchmark Organizational Self-Assessment Tool by ACZISC

The benchmark is designed to be used repetitively to measure improvement in the effectiveness and ease of accessing data and information by users both within and outside an organization. Use of the benchmark tool on an annual basis would be appropriate. The aggregate score obtained from the benchmark ladders is less important than the individual scores for each ladder. It is the relative scoring on each of the principles / evaluation ladders that will be most useful in focusing initiatives to improve the overall score. The tool could also be used to separately score different business units or data dissemination infrastructures within an organization especially if responsibility for data management and data accessibility is a distributed responsibility. Organizations may want to weight their scores based upon internal priorities e.g. data management policies and plans may be considered a higher priority than user support. It is important that the weightings be explicit and consistently used in each use of the tool.