A client recently asked me: "If you had to pick a single best practice for data management, what would it be?"

Without thinking, I blurted out: "Don't be stupid."

What I meant by that is too often we are our own worst enemies when it comes to data management. We make business rules that are far too complex. We spend all our time managing to the exception. And we spend too much time trying to work out fancy automation or programming when doing it manually makes the most sense.

These are all self-imposed problems, or as they say in soccer, "own goals." We do it to ourselves.

So think about all the rules and processes you've developed over the years and ask yourself: "Are we being stupid?"