How healthy is your Databricks platform?

Your score comes only from your own answers and the rules below. It is not a benchmark against other companies, and we have no data on how others score.

1. Every question adds points to one dimension. Single choice earns the listed points (0 to 4). Each ticked option of a multiple-choice question earns 1 point. A scale answer earns its number minus 1.
2. A dimension score is the points you earned divided by the points available in that dimension, as a percentage.
3. The overall score is all points earned divided by all points available. Every dimension has the same number of questions, so each counts equally.
4. Levels follow the overall score: Starting 0 to 29, Developing 30 to 54, Established 55 to 79, Leading 80 to 100.
5. Recommendations come from the rules listed per check. The weakest dimensions rank first, and the top three are shown.

Points per question

Each answer shows the points it earns on the dimension of the question.

1. 01 / Governance How is access to data granted? Up to 4 points

   • Per user on the workspace 0 pts
   • Per user in Unity Catalog 1 pt
   • Through Entra ID groups synced to Unity Catalog 3 pts
   • Reader and contributor groups per schema, defined in Terraform 4 pts

2. 02 / Governance Which Unity Catalog features do you use? Up to 4 points

   • Separate catalogues per environment 1 pt
   • Column masks or row filters 1 pt
   • Tags on sensitive columns 1 pt
   • Lineage and audit logs, reviewed regularly 1 pt
   • None of these 0 pts

3. 03 / Cost control How do you control Databricks spend? Up to 4 points

   • We look at the invoice 0 pts
   • Budgets or a dashboard, without an owner 1 pt
   • Cluster policies and tags per team 3 pts
   • Policies, tags and budgets with alerts, and a monthly review with owners 4 pts

4. 04 / Cost control How well do you know which workload costs what? Up to 4 points

   Scale 1 to 5 earns the answer minus 1 (0 to 4 points).

5. 05 / Delivery How do jobs and pipelines reach production? Up to 4 points

   • By editing in the workspace 0 pts
   • Git folders and a manual deploy 1 pt
   • Asset Bundles, deployed by a person 3 pts
   • Asset Bundles, deployed only by pipelines after a reviewed pull request 4 pts

6. 06 / Delivery Which of these are in place? Up to 4 points

   • Development, test, acceptance and production targets 1 pt
   • Bundle validation on every pull request 1 pt
   • Code scanning on every pull request 1 pt
   • Automated tests on every pull request 1 pt
   • None of these 0 pts

7. 07 / Security How are your workspaces connected? Up to 4 points

   • Public endpoints 0 pts
   • Public, with IP access lists 1 pt
   • Private Link for the front end or back end 3 pts
   • VNet injection, secure cluster connectivity, private endpoints and public access off 4 pts

8. 08 / Security How are secrets and identities handled? Up to 4 points

   Scale 1 to 5 earns the answer minus 1 (0 to 4 points).

Recommendation rules

• Governance scores below 60 → recommend: Move access to Entra ID groups defined in Terraform
• Cost control scores below 60 → recommend: Give every workload a cost owner
• Delivery scores below 60 → recommend: Deploy Asset Bundles only through pipelines
• Security scores below 60 → recommend: Close public paths and remove long-lived tokens
• You answered 1: "Per user on the workspace" / "Per user in Unity Catalog" → recommend: Move access to Entra ID groups defined in Terraform
• Overall score is 70 or higher → recommend: Get an independent second opinion

Levels

• Starting (0 to 29): Several basics are missing. Expect avoidable cost and risk, and a prioritised list of fixes would pay for itself quickly.
• Developing (30 to 54): A working platform with gaps in governance, delivery or security. Fix the weakest dimension first.
• Established (55 to 79): A solid platform. The remaining gaps are usually in automation and cost ownership.
• Leading (80 to 100): Most good practices are in place. A short independent review still finds blind spots, such as unused permissions and cost drift.