#seed Stocktaking is a structured approach in the [[discovery]] phase of a project to understand the context of the project and the needs of the organization. Typically used to describe the physical counting of inventory, in the context of a data project it includes an inventory of all existing data assets and the identification of gaps--including gaps in data necessary to achieve a business objective and the lack of capacity or culture to properly access and use the data. Tasks in stocktaking might include key informant interviews, focus groups, review of business practices (documented and undocumented), and inventory of data assets. The output of a stocktaking is a list of [[findings and recommendations]].