Files with a person, not a schedule
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Files with a person, not a schedule. Why uploads get their own register.
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UploadsEvery business of this size runs on spreadsheets: targets, distributor mappings, scheme terms. Antvia Data keeps them in a register of their own, for Acme Home Appliances, a demo company.
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A person and a habitA connector has an owning team, a schedule and somebody who is paged when it stops. An upload has a person and a habit, and nothing fires when the habit lapses.
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The one that mattersSo the page opens on the risk that matters: a file nobody can replace, still being read by three dashboards and models.
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Nobody maintainingOne uploader has left the company.
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Depended onSix of the seven files are read by something, eighteen readers in all.
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Kept in caseAnd one is read by nothing at all.
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A personMaintained by names a person, not a team. That is the point of the column: when the person leaves, the file has nobody.
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The habitMeant to be replaced records how often somebody is supposed to refresh it. Freshness is judged against that, not against a fixed number of days.
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Read byRead by counts the dashboards and models that depend on each file, which is what turns an old file into a risk.
One of each
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One of each. Orphaned, current, ageing, stale and unused.
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OrphanedThe regional targets file. Nikhil Arora uploaded it and was deactivated in June, so nobody has been given the file, and three things still read it.
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Old targets, current labelThe second-quarter revision was due at the start of July and never happened. Three dashboards report percent to plan against first-quarter targets and call it current.
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Where it goesIt was promoted into the region scorecard mart, which is how a spreadsheet ends up behind a leadership number.
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The fixThe fix is not technical. Assign an owner, then replace the file.
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Small and criticalThe distributor region map is 470 rows, and six things read it. A single mistyped region silently moves a distributor between rollups.
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On realignmentIt changes on realignment, about twice a year, so a file last replaced in July is current.
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AgeingThe trade scheme terms are meant to be replaced monthly. August schemes were announced on 1 August and have not been uploaded, and nothing schedules this.
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The healthy caseThe engineer roster was replaced four days ago by the head of service. Somebody whose job includes it, doing it.
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UnusedCompetitor prices collected by hand in June. Nothing reads the file, so it is storage and a governance surface for no benefit.
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Offer to deleteAn unused file is the only kind the panel offers to delete.
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Old and correctAppointment dates, nine months old. Nobody has been appointed since November, so that is correct. Age alone is not a problem.
Every governed column
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Every governed column. What each column holds, and who may read it.
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The column registerDesign a source is where new sources are shaped from a sample file, and where every governed column already lives, 35 of them across six tables.
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Needing protectionEleven columns hold personal or sensitive data. Six of them are covered by a masking policy.
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UnprotectedFive are not. Anyone who can query those tables reads them in full, including the answer engine, which puts them in a grid somebody exports.
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Four kindsHolds is the classification: public, internal, personal or sensitive. Personal identifies a person; sensitive is financial and needs an audit trail too.
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PolicyPolicy is read from the policy register, not typed on the column, so editing a rule updates every column it covers.
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Worst firstThe list opens with exposed personal data, then drift, then everything else by table.
Open to anyone
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Open to anyone. Classified, and left unprotected.
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Distributor ownersDistributor owners' email addresses were added in 2024 for order alerts. Classified as personal; nothing covers them.
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Readable in fullTheir mobile numbers too. Anybody who can query dim_distributor reads them, and the panel says so in those words.
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Switched offCustomer comments are a different failure. A redaction policy covers this column, and it is switched off.
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Worse than noneA rule that exists and does nothing is worse than no rule. Anybody checking whether comments are handled will find that they are.
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SensitiveDistributor credit limits are sensitive, and no policy covers them. A regional head who asked the answer engine was refused by the surface, but a direct query would have worked.
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CoveredFor contrast, customer mobile numbers are covered: masked to the first two and last three digits for anyone without an exemption.
Changed under the pipeline
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Changed under the pipeline. Three kinds of drift, none of which failed a run.
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DriftThree columns changed under the pipeline. None of them failed a run.
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Type changedWarranty claim amounts were numeric until 3 August. The partner portal now exports them with a rupee sign and Indian digit grouping, so they land as text.
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Silently zeroEvery sum on the column now returns zero, and the warranty dashboard shows it without an error.
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AppearedA serial number column appeared on the same day. Nobody asked for it, nothing reads it, and joined to an installation it identifies a household.
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VanishedAnd a column stopped arriving on 30 July, when the channel stock connector broke. It was not removed; it is simply absent, which reads the same to everything downstream.
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One tableSearch narrows to one table. The warranty claims staging table has both a type change and a new personal column, from one portal redesign.
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By classificationOr to a classification. Five sensitive columns: margin, discounts, amounts due, credit limits and the cash discount rate.