Metric ownership and source of truth
A field-level ownership model for GTM metrics that names the business owner, calculation source, update process, and dispute path.
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“The dashboard says” is not source authority. A metric needs a definition, a source, a calculation, an owner, and a way to settle disagreements.
Metric contract
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Name | Accepted handoff rate |
| Business owner | Sales operations |
| Source | CRM handoff event |
| Population | Eligible routed requests |
| Numerator | Requests with accepted timestamp |
| Denominator | Eligible requests with a due date |
| Refresh | Daily at 06:00 local time |
| Caveat | Open records have not reached the SLA |
Store this in a metric dictionary and link the dashboard to it.
Authority is contextual
The CRM may own lifecycle status. A messaging system may own delivery events. A finance system may own recognized revenue. Pick one source per fact and define the join key. Do not merge sources because one has a more attractive report.
Dispute path
When a metric is challenged, freeze the definition and inspect the population, source fields, transformation, and refresh time in that order. The metric owner decides whether the definition changes. The data owner fixes bad inputs. The analyst updates the query after approval.
Assign ownership by decision
The business owner defines what question the metric answers and approves changes. The source owner maintains the events or fields. The implementation owner maintains the query and delivery. The consumer decides what action follows. One person may hold several roles, but writing them separately prevents “RevOps owns the dashboard” from replacing actual accountability.
Create a lineage path from displayed number to calculation, population, source facts, and system authority. Include join keys, transformations, refresh schedule, permissions, and definition version. Where sources disagree, apply the documented authority rule and expose unresolved records rather than selecting whichever total looks plausible.
Govern changes
Route requests through the metric owner, test them on known records and a parallel historical period, and publish the effective date. Notify dependent dashboard and workflow owners. Keep the prior version long enough to explain historical results, and retire aliases that use the same label for a different calculation.
Related: CRM field dictionary, Reporting populations and denominators, and GTM metric dictionary template.
Related guides
FAQ
- Who owns a GTM metric?
- The business owner is accountable for what the metric means and how it is used. A data owner maintains the source fields, and an analyst may maintain the query. Name all three when they differ.
- What is a source of truth?
- It is the named system and field set that has authority for a fact in a defined context. One system may be authoritative for ownership while another is authoritative for a billing event.
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