One of the three most important jobs of a Data Governance program is to help resolve data-related issues. These may be conflicting data definitions, data usage concerns, or problems with how data is sourced, how it is integrated, how it is protected, or a myriad of other issues.

Governance and Issue Resolution

Data Governance programs are generally structured to allow an orderly and predictable issue escalation path for data issues that pulls together the right stakeholders at the right time with the right research and analysis, so they can make a decision that is right for the enterprise.

The DGI Data Governance Framework includes “Resolving Issues” as a key Governance process. Of course, every organization will decide how much structure and formality to bring to the process of resolving data-related issues.

Ideally, this process should be standardized, documented, and repeatable. It should be crafted in such a way to support regulatory and compliance requirements for Data Management, Privacy, Security, and Access Management. Record-keeping should provide a clear history of which stakeholders were involved in resolving an issue, what resources/analysis were used, and what alternatives were considered.

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Governance and Decision-Making

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Defining Data Governance

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Demonstrating Value

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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...

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...

Focus Areas for Data Governance

All Data Governance programs are not alike. Quite the contrary: programs can use the same framework, employ the same processes, and still appear very different. Why is this? It’s because of what the organization is trying to make decisions about or enforce rules for....

Goals and Principles for Data Governance

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Focus Areas for Data Governance: Management Alignment

This type of program typically comes into existence when managers find it difficult to make “routine” data-related management decisions because of their potential effect on operations or compliance efforts.Managers may realize they need to come together to make...

Dealing With Politics

It’s essential that Data Governance and Stewardship program facilitators avoid being “caught up” in politics. It’s our jobs to acknowledge the realities of the situations we work with, while avoiding taking sides or engaging in behaviors that could be perceived as favoring one set of data stakeholders at the expense of others.

Choosing Governance Models

It’s important to define the organizational structure of your Data Governance program. But before you can do that you have to define your governance model at a higher level. You need to consider what types of decisions your governance bodies will be called upon to...