This type of program typically comes into existence because some group within the organization needs support from a cross-functional leadership body. For example, companies moving from silo development to enterprise systems may find their application development teams resisting the guidance of Data Architects and Modelers.

Formal Data Governance policies, backed by cross-functional Stewards, can give needed weight to architectural positions. What other types of groups and initiatives might want such a program focus?

Enterprise initiatives such as

Enterprise Data Management (EDM)
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Standardization on platforms
Acquisition of data sets and systems (purchased data, ongoing data feeds, or changes due to Merger and Acquisitions activity).

What type of data do such programs generally address in early iterations of the program?

Sets of Master Data
Metadata
Sensitive Data
Acquired Data

A charter for this type of program may hold Data Governance and Stewardship participants accountable to:

Contribute to standardized data definitions
Prioritize the need for formal policy, standards, or data-related requirements
Write policy, standards, or data-related requirements
Collect policy, standards, or requirements from across the organization into a set that stakeholders, Data Stewards, and other Data Governance participants can access
Reconcile gaps, overlaps, and inconsistencies in policy, standards, or requirements
Write business rules to address the applicability of policy, standards, or requirements
Set accountabilities for the design, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of policy, standards, or requirements
Work with Content Management, Document Management, Portal Management, Intranet teams, and others to consistently post policy, standards, or requirements
Report status for policy enforcement initiatives
Identify stakeholders, establish decision rights, clarify accountabilities

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.

Governance and Decision-Making

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Focus Areas for Data Governance: Data Warehouses and Business Intelligence (BI)

This type of program typically comes into existence in conjunction with a specific data warehouse, data mart, or BI tool. These types of efforts require tough data-related decisions, so organizations often implement governance to help make initial decisions, to...

Defining Organizational Structures

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Implementing Change Management

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Focus Areas for Data Governance: Data Quality

This type of program typically comes into existence because of issues around the quality, integrity, or usability of data. It may be sponsored by a Data Quality group or a business team that needs better quality data. (For example: Data Acquisition or Mergers &...