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Team Structure in OpenMetadata

OpenMetadata supports a hierarchical team structure with teamType that can be Organization, Business Unit, Division, Department, and Group (default team type). Organization serves as the foundation of the team hierarchy representing the entire company. The other team types under Organization are Business Units, Divisions, Departments, and Groups.
  • Organization is the root team in the hierarchy. It cannot have a parent. It can have children of the type Business Unit, Division, Department, and Group.
  • BusinessUnit is the next level of the team in the hierarchy. It can have Business Unit, Division, Department, and Group as children. It can only have one parent either of the type Organization, or Business Unit.
  • Division is the next level of the team in the hierarchy below Business Unit. It can have Division, Department, and Group as children. It can only have one parent of the type Organization, Business Unit, or Division.
  • Department is the next level of the team in the hierarchy below Division. It can have Department and Group as children. It can have Organization, Business Unit, Division, or Department as parents. It can have multiple parents.
  • Group is the last level of the team in the hierarchy. It can only have Users as children and not any other teams. It can have all the team types as parents. It can have multiple parents.
  • Once created, the teamType for Group cannot be changed later.
  • Only the Teams of the type Group can own data assets.
  • Only Group teams can have Users as direct members. Adding a user directly to an Organization, Business Unit, Division, or Department team fails with Team is of type <TeamType>. Direct users can only be assigned to teams of type Group. Add users to a Group team nested under them instead.

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Viewing a Non-Group Team’s Members

Even though Organization, Business Unit, Division, and Department teams can’t take direct user members, their Users tab still shows everyone who belongs to the team through its nested Group sub-teams. The member count badge, the in-tab search, and the Export action all reflect this same rolled-up set of users. A team’s Users tab, count, and CSV export match its Total Users stat even though none of those users are direct members of the team itself.
OpenMetadata supports flexible nested team hierarchies under organizational structures such as Business Unit, Division, and Department. While there is no hardcoded limit to the depth of hierarchy, leaf nodes such as “Group” cannot have child teams. Additionally, certain team types like “Department” cannot be nested within “Group.” To extend the hierarchy, consider using other team types where appropriate.
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How to Add a Team

Creating a Team in OpenMetadata is easy for different team types.