Implementing Data Governance

Implementing data governance sounds like a daunting task.  The truth is the basics are very easy to master.  From the initial concepts, to forming a team, to analyzing and cleaning data, as long as you follow a good plan and have done industry research you will likely have a good chance at succeeding.  Organizations and companies want data governance because it puts the company in a better position, so the executives really want the program to succeed.  It looks good publicly and privately to have implemented a successful data governance program.

The first step in building a data governance program is to form a team.  A data governance team is generally made up of a sponsor the director, analysts, plus the data governance stewardship council.  It’s important to have a sponsor that has bought into the program and wields authority within the organization.  The director should have experience with many departments across the organization.  The director does not have to come from IT.  It is helpful if the analysts also had experience working with many different parts of the organization, for instance sales, marketing, IT, and project management.

The data stewardship council is made up of representatives from across the company.  These should not be lower level managers.  It should be upper management and they should have the ability to task managers and analysts within their own business areas.  Make sure that the entire spectrum of the organization is represented on the data stewardship council.

Once the team is selected it is important to then begin to determine what data should be reviewed.  Each business area will likely have its own pet problems that they would like taking care of.  While these may be important issues, at first it would be good to start with a small issue that bothers many people.  This does a few things: it gets you a quick when, it makes many people happy, and it helps you establish a process for running issues through the council.

After you have gotten your quick win you can begin tackling more and more difficult problems.  Again, the focus is on the data issues that affect the most silos within the organization.  It does no good to focus heavily on issues that only affects one silo.  These types of issues will cause the rest of your council members to quickly lose interest and a buy-in.

Once the program is running you’ll be able to tackle many issues at the same time.  You’ll need to be pretty organized and use project management software to be the most efficient and successful as possible.

So, is implementing data governance a daunting task? It can be, but if you are methodical and organized you can certainly be successful. It takes hard work, research, and dedication to truly make data governance effective within an organization.