There’s an old adage: You can’t manage what you don’t name. And then there’s its corollary: You can’t manage well what you don’t define explicitly.

How you define your program will influence your ability to manage it — to keep all participants on focus, in sync, and striving toward the same goals.

Defining Data Governance

And so, as you choose words to go into the definition of your program, consider the people you need to manage. In performing Data Governance activities, what details will they focus on? Do they have a strategic or tactical perspective? Are they more comfortable with business or technical terminology?

Consider, for example, the definition of Data Governance introduced by the Data Governance Institute:

“Data Governance is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods.”

 

This is a general, all-purpose definition of Data Governance, focused at the mid-level managers who must come together to make cross-functional decisions, set policies, and execute on it.

It’s a little long, I confess. It highlights the “rules of engagement” components of the DGI Data Governance Framework. Why? When it was written and published, we wanted to provide an alternative to definitions that focused on authority and control structures, since we thought those definitions might not be accepted well in consensus-based cultures. .

Now look at some of the following definitions. Can you see how the way Data Governance is defined might influence how it is executed? Can you tell from the definitions whether it is aimed at executives, middle managers, or individual contributors? Can you guess what types of changes (to the organization, to processes, to power/authority structures, to data/metadata are being supported by Data Governance?

 

Data governance (DG) refers to the overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise.

Source: searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0…

Data governance is the practice of organizing and implementing policies, procedures and standards for the effective use of an organization’s structured/unstructured information assets.

Source: www.sdn.sap.com…

Data Governance: The execution and enforcement of authority over the management of data assets and the performance of data functions.

Source: www.tdan.com/view-articles/5037

Data governance is the decision-making process that prioritizes investments, allocates resources, and measures results to ensure that data is managed and deployed to support business needs.

Source: www.b-eye-network.com/view/8393

Read Next:

Goals and Principles for Data Governance

What do you want Data Governance to accomplish?  Regardless of the focus of your program, chances are you hope to accomplish the following universal goals for Data Governance programs: Goal – Enable better decision-making Goal – Reduce operational friction Goal –...

Engaging Stewards and Stakeholders

It seems like there are two types of Data Governance and Stewardship programs: Thriving ones, with highly-engaged stakeholders, and Ones whose futures are in question, since stakeholders and stewards are only sporadically involved or give only weak support to the...

Demonstrating Value

Everything an organization does should tie to one of three universal value drivers. Data Governance efforts MUST tie back to one or more of these drivers. And YOU must communicate how it does.

Governance Communications

At a Data Governance Conference in Orlando, Florida (USA), a group of managers of successful Data Governance programs reached a startling consensus: They agreed that Data Governance is actually somewhere between 80 and 95% communications!How can this be? They said...

Working with Data Stewards

Approaches to Assigning Data Ownership and Stewardship Organizations can take multiple approaches to assigning Data Owners and Data Stewards for enterprise data. In doing so, they need to consider several factors and answer the following questions.Question #1:  Should...

Setting Governance Roles and Responsibilities

Who does what in a Data Governance program? First, a group of individuals (or a hierarchy of groups) representing a cross-section of stakeholder groups makes a set of rules in the form of policies, standards, requirements, guidelines, or data definitions. (Or, they...

Governance and Alignment

Data Governance is a balancing act. On the one hand, you need to exert control over how groups create data, manage data, and use data. On the other hand, you need to promote appropriate levels of flexibility. You need to ensure that data-related efforts support the...

Defining Organizational Structures

There is no single “right” way to organize Data Governance and Stewardship. Some organizations have distinct Data Governance programs. Others embed Data Governance activities into Data Quality or Master Data Management programs.

Implementing Change Management

Most organizations have string change management – or at least change control – mechanisms for technology. They usually have change management for software applications. They have change management for websites. And yet, many organizations do not practice structured...

Focus Areas for Data Governance: Privacy, Compliance, Security

This type of program typically comes into existence because of concerns about Data Information Security controls, or compliance. Compliance, in this context, may refer to regulatory compliance, contractual compliance, or compliance with internal requirements.This...