What is org as data?
Roles, access, and assignments kept as structured files that tooling reads directly.
Definition
org as data (n.) – the practice of keeping the company's roles, access records, and work assignments as structured files, so that tooling reads the organization rather than having it hardcoded.
An org chart is a picture. It describes the company to people and is read by nobody at runtime. A registry is the same information in a form that a program can act on: which roles exist, what each is allowed to touch, what work is assigned to which role, and on what schedule it runs.
The practical consequence is that adding a role, a client, or a scheduled job becomes adding a file rather than editing scripts. Tooling stops carrying hardcoded knowledge about the organization, and the organization stops being duplicated across every script that needed to know about it.
The registry holds references to accounts and never the credentials themselves. An access record says which vault entry to use, not what is in it.
A registry that has drifted from reality is worse than none, because tooling trusts it. Keeping it current is part of the work rather than an afterthought.
What the registry holds
The company itself: identity, goals, and the constraints that bound every decision. The roles: what each one is for, and the highest level of autonomy it may hold. The access records: which external accounts exist, which role may use each, and where the credential lives. The assignments: what runs, for whom, by which role, on what schedule.
Four files is usually enough to start. The value comes from them being read by tooling, not from their being elaborate.
Why it beats an org chart
An org chart answers who reports to whom, which is a question about people. A registry answers who is allowed to do what, which is a question about work, and it is the one an automated system needs answered before it acts.
It also makes removal cheap. Revoking a role's access is deleting a line rather than remembering everywhere it was granted.