How to create and manage data products

A data product is a set of information with a defined use case that is meant to be shared with other users. For example: a sales report, an ML model, or a data model and its associated tables. A data product is a logical grouping of related physical assets, created for a specific purpose.

It can be hard to find the value of data presented by itself, but data already associated with a purpose is easier to find and use. Enter data products that provide practical context for your users and for intelligence systems, to help users identify what data is useful to them.

To create data products for your organization, and ensure those products have enough definition to be useful to your user base, follow these instructions.

Prerequisites

• To view data products, users need Unified Catalog reader permissions.
• To manage or edit data products, users need data product owner permissions.

View data product

1. In Unified Catalog, select Catalog management.

2. Select Data products

   

3. You'll see a list of all the data products you have access to based on your permissions.

4. You can scroll, sort, filter, and search through these data products to find the ones you're looking for.

5. For more details about a specific data product, select that data product.

6. On the data product's detail page, you can view the governance domain, update frequency, status, owner, subscribers, terms of use, aggregate data quality score, health actions, and documentation.

   

Create data products

Important

To manage or edit data products, users will need at least data product owner permissions. You can only create data products in governance domains you have data product owner access to.

1. In Unified Catalog, select Catalog management, then select Data products.

2. Select New data product.

   

3. Provide the basic details: name, description, and type.

   • The description should be a business narrative about the data, where it came from and why it was captured. The goal is for a new user to understand the basics of when, what, why, and how the data came into existence and provide clarity about the meaning of the specific data to the business.

4. Select an owner or owners for your data product.

   

5. Select Next.

6. Select the governance domain your data product should be associated with.

7. Provide the business use case:

   • The use case describes what the data is used for today and how a user can effectively apply it to their own scenario. Information like what filters or dimensions are available or which asset contains the view that is easiest to parse, or any other details that can accelerate the usage of the data can be added to the use case. If the data is only appropriate for specific purposes, include these details so users don't request access for data that they won't be approved for or won't help them to achieve their goals.

8. Optionally choose to mark the data product as 'Endorsed'.

9. Select Create.

10. Once your data product is created, you're taken to the newly created product's details page. This is where you can make other edits to the data product, which is currently in a draft state.

    Important

    The data product isn't visible to other users yet. For it to be visible to other users, you'll need to add data assets, create an access policy, and then publish the data product.

Data product types

When you create a data product, you can optionally identify it as one of these four types. These types help identify the kinds of users that might want to use the data product, and can be used to filter data products in a search.

• Dataset - analytical data designed for reporting and other use cases
• Master data and reference data - common data that every use case should apply because of its importance to all business areas
• Business System/Application- data within a single system or large quantities of data that model an entire system for down stream solutions
• Model types (ML, AI, Gen AI, Analytics) - notebooks and semantic models that provide a specific output that others can apply while building new solutions
• Dashboards/Reports - a typical end point for data that is visualized and used by decision makers to better understand the business and gain insights
• Operational - a group of assets that need to be governed and managed for regulatory purposes, lineage mapping, and source of truth identification

Manage data products

Data product owners can view and modify the properties of a data product following these steps.

1. In Unified Catalog, select Catalog management, then select Data products.

2. Select the data product to open its details page.

3. Select Edit.

   

From the data product page you can:

• Edit basic details
• Manage update frequency
• Change the status of your data product
• Manage associated data assets
• Manage associated terms or OKRs
• Manage terms of use
• Manage associated documentation

Edit basic details

To edit a data product, you need data product owner permissions.

1. On your data product page, select the Edit button.
2. Select Details.
3. On the basic details page you can update the name, description, type, and owners.
4. On the business details page, you can update use cases and endorsement status.
5. To save your changes, select Save.

Update frequency

Update frequency can be used to indicate how regularly a data product is managed. This is an indicator and isn't currently automated.

1. To edit the update frequency, select the update frequency attribute.

   

2. Select the update frequency you expect for your data product.

3. Select Done.

Publish, draft, and expire

To publish a drafted data product, you can select the Publish button next to the edit button. Before you can publish, you need to add data assets to your data product, and set up a data access policy so users can request access to your data product.

Note

Ensure your governance domain is published before you publish your data products.

After completing the requirements, you can publish your data product, which will make the data product available for users in Unified Catalog.

You can also set a previously published data product to a draft:

1. Select the Unpublish button in the data product.
2. Select Set to draft which will allow only stewards, governance domain owners, and data product owners to view and manage it.

You can also set your data product to Expired:

1. Select the Unpublish button in the data product.
2. Select Set to expired which makes it visible only to stewards, governance domain owners, and data product owners.

Delete data products

Deleting a data product needs to be a planned undertaking.

To delete a data product, you will need to first unpublish it and remove links to all related business concepts, including data assets within. If any assets have data quality rules running on them or failed data quality run history, you will need to remove those in the Data Quality section as well. You will then need to inform subscribers of the data product about the upcoming deletion, and remove previously approved access requests.

Once all these tasks are completed, you can select the Delete button to successfully delete the data product.

Manage the data product access policies

To manage access policies, you need data product owner or data steward permissions.

1. If your data product is published, first it needs to be unpublished to manage policies.

2. On your data product page, select Manage policies.

   

3. From the policy configuration window, you're able to create and manage your data product's access policy. For more information, see the documentation about Unified Catalog access policies.

Manage data assets

Data products group data assets together to allow them to be more easily discovered. To add or remove data assets from your data product, follow these guides below.

Add data assets

Note

When adding data assets, only assets that the governance domain has been scoped for or that the user has access to in the data map will be shown in the search.

To add data assets to your data product:

1. Open Unified Catalog in Microsoft Purview.

2. Select the Catalog management drop-down.

3. Select Data products.

4. Select the data product you want to add assets to.

5. Select Add data assets under the description and use cases.

   

6. Search for your data assets using keywords, or by using the filters by selecting the Add filter button.

7. Select any assets you want to add to the data product.

   

8. You can edit your selected asset list by selecting the Selected assets button.

9. Once you've selected all your assets, select the Add button.

You'll see your newly added assets in your data product.

Remove data assets

1. Open Unified Catalog in Microsoft Purview.

2. Select the Catalog management drop-down.

3. Select Data products.

4. Select the data product you want to remove assets from.

5. If the assets you want to remove are on the front page, you can select their ellipsis button and select Remove.

   

6. If you don't see the assets on the main product page, select View all data assets. There you're able to search and filter the assets. To remove them, select their ellipsis button and select Remove.

Manage linked resources

You can link glossary terms and OKRs to your data products directly to improve understanding, apply policies, and associate your data products with your business' goals.

Critical data elements are added automatically when assets in your data product are mapped to critical data elements. For more information, see the critical data elements article.

Add linked resources

1. On the data products page, select the data product you want to add terms or OKRs to.

2. Under Glossary terms or OKRs select the + or the Add button.

   

3. Search for your terms or ORKs using keywords, governance domain, or by using the filters by selecting the filter button.

4. Select any you want to add to the data product.

5. Select the Add button.

6. You can now see the term or OKR in the list for your data products.

Remove linked resources

1. On the data products page, select the data product you want to remove terms or OKRs from.
2. Under Glossary terms or OKRs, find the item you want to remove, and select its ellipsis button.
3. Select Remove.

Note

Critical data elements are added automatically based on the assets in your data product. For more information about managing critical data elements, see the critical data elements article.

Terms of use

1. On the data products page, select the data product you want to manage terms of use for.

2. Select the terms of use attribute.

   

3. To add more terms of use:

   1. Select the + Add link button.
   2. (Optionally) Choose a particular data asset to link the use to.
   3. Provide a friendly name for the terms.
   4. Provide the link to the terms of use.
   5. Select Create.
   6. Select Done.

4. To remove any terms of use:

   1. Hover over the term you want to remove.
   2. Select the trashcan remove button.

5. Once you've made your edits, select the Done button.

Documentation

1. On the data products page, select the data product you want to manage documentation for.

2. Select the documentation attribute.

   

3. To add more documentation:

   1. Select the + Add link button.
   2. (Optionally) Choose a particular data asset to link the documentation to.
   3. Provide a friendly name for the documentation.
   4. Provide the link to the documentation.
   5. Select Create.
   6. Select Done.

4. To remove any documentation:

   1. Hover over the documentation you want to remove.
   2. Select the trashcan remove button.

5. Once you've made your edits, select the Done button.

Endorse a data product

As a Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog grows in size, it's important for data consumers to understand what data they can trust. Data consumers need to know if a data product meets their organization's quality standards and can be regarded as reliable.

Data product owners can now set the 'Endorsed' flag for their data products to indicate that they have certified their data products, and build confidence in the quality of their data product.

To endorse a data product, you need data product owner permissions.

1. On your data product page, select the Edit button.

2. Select Details.

3. Select the Mark as 'Endorsed' button.

   

4. To save your changes, select Save.

Next steps

• What are data products
• Glossary terms