Critical data element (CDE)
A data element important enough to the business to require extra governance: an owner, quality rules, documented lineage and monitoring.
Also called: CDE
A CDE is a business element flagged as critical, usually because it feeds regulatory reports, financial statements or key risk decisions. The flag makes governance mandatory: a named owner, defined data quality rules, documented data lineage and active monitoring.
Example: Mortgage Outstanding Balance feeds capital and liquidity reporting, so it is a CDE.
Three scales - Personal: the account numbers and balances your tax return depends on. - Business: revenue and customer counts in your board report. - Enterprise: the few thousand fields that regulators and auditors trace end to end.