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The CEO of your company comes to you after returning from an executive conference. She says to you “I heard at the conference that successful companies have strong data governance. I want you to start that for us.”
How do you make this happen?
First, let’s make sure everyone understands what a data governance program is. The data governance institute defines data governance as:
“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.”
While I agree with that definition, the wording of it is long and a bit academic. I would re-phrase that definition to be:
“Data Governance is the collection of practices and processes that facilitate better decision making and communication around the management of data assets within an organization.”
The key aspect of the definition is this: Data Governance is about decision-making. Who gets to make the decisions, how they are made, when they are made, etc. There may be several data management tasks or operations that then occur because of the decisions that were made by the data governance program. To have a successful governance program and a data management initiative, these two efforts must be in-sync with each other AND the scope of each should be known and understood.
If we understand that data governance is about decision-making, then we can establish that the key to achieving acceptance from the organization for the program is to involve the right people from all parts of the organization in the right places within the program. People want to be heard and involved in decision making.
It is also important to note – a data governance program is not a project that ends. It is an ongoing discipline that continues to improve and hopefully thrive over time. The focus of a data governance program could and should change throughout its lifetime as the opportunities around the use of data and information grow within your organization.
With the context from above, here are 8 steps to take to implement an effective data governance program within your organization.
Steps:
- Establish the scope & framework for the data governance program.
It is important for all stakeholders to understand what the data governance program will do and what things are outside of the scope of the program operations. When you talk about data governance within your organization, you want to be able to clearly define the benefits and value it will provide the organization. In many companies, this can be done by creating a charter for the program. The charter would describe what is in and out of scope of the program, what the operating model of the program looks like, what the goals of the program are and who would be involved in the program operations.
Having a high-level framework that defines the context of the data governance program is also useful in both articulating it to those that will participate in the program but also to those interested stakeholders who may interact with the program in some other capacity.
At Pandata Group, we have developed the following Framework to describe how we think of Data Governance:
- Get Executive Support
Having an executive champion for the Data Governance program helps to ensure you have someone with enough clout within the organization to demonstrate the importance of its operations and of the work that it will do. If you need to marshal resources or budget for the program, having the executive assist in making that happen is key to its successful operations.
- Create your program’s operational structure
Depending on the size of your organization and the scope of your program, you may want to have multiple committees or groups that work on different aspects of your program. In my experience and from what we have seen work at many organizations, there is a minimum of two committees or groups that should be formed: a steering committee and an operational committee. The steering committee would be accountable for all the decisions that are made by the program and the operational program may be responsible for developing the recommendations for which decisions are made and how they will be made. The operational committee would then also be the group that ensures any data management efforts implementing decisions are in sync with the direction of the program. If the data governance program is large in scope or your organization is large, you may decide to have sub-committees that handle different aspects of data governance. For example, there may be a sub-committee to handle data definitions and a different sub-committee to handle access & security.
You should be deliberate and thoughtful about from which functions in your organization you get participation in the program. Certainly, you’ll want participation from people within IT. But the data governance program cannot be solely an IT function if it is going to be successful. There needs to be active participation from other departments as well. If one of the focuses of the program is going to be establishing data definitions, you’ll want to have people from the functions that use the data domains that are to be defined. This could include finance, operations, sales, marketing, etc. If privacy is an initial focus, you may consider someone from legal to join your program. As we said before, having the right people involved in the decision-making process is THE KEY to having a successful data governance program.
- Establish goals & Measures of Success
As with any effort, in order to show the effectiveness of your data governance program, you want to establish the desired outcomes of the program and then measure your progress towards those outcomes. For example, if one of the goals of the program is to ensure compliance with GDPR, then you may want to have metrics measuring how many staff members have taken privacy trainings or how many domains of data have access control policies that have been developed following privacy by design principles. Maybe you want to measure the success of the program by how many job descriptions for your organization have specific language about data stewardship within them. The important thing is to be intentional about deciding on the goals of the program and then measuring progress against those goals.
- Establish the first three initiatives the program will undertake
As with designing, developing and implementing any large effort, implementing the program in stages is an approach that provides a lot of benefits. You can find an idea or one project within the program that, once implemented, will produce great value to the organization and be a key ‘win’ for your team. This will build momentum within your organization and allow the program to effectively grow in scope and effort over time. We suggest deciding on the first three efforts that program will undertake. Not all three efforts should be from the same area of the program. If the first initiative is one around privacy and security, then maybe one of the next two is dealing with data architecture.
- Market the program / train users on how to interact with it
As you initiate the program, you want to demonstrate its success to the wider organization. It is important to show the company why data governance matters and the value it brings to the organization. You also want to show others how data governance can make their lives easier. Some of the successful programs that we have helped initialize and operate have included someone from the marketing department for the purpose of designing communication plans to market the efforts of the program to the entire organization.
If your program involves developing new procedures for gaining access to data or implementing a new data dictionary or developing new procedures for publishing reports to a central report repository, you will want to train users on these new procedures. As your data management efforts then begin to implement the procedures, having someone from HR/staff training (if that function exists) to help design the training can be beneficial as well.
- Monitor and evaluate
So, you’ve established goals and the methods by which to measure those goals, you should remember to actually monitor the progress towards achieving those goals. If you do not meet the goals, you should analyze the reasons for not meeting them. If you achieve successes, you should similarly analyze the reasons that made the effort successful so you can repeat our successes.
- Communicate and report
Finally, we should report out to the organization how the data governance program is doing. You initially marketed to the company the benefits of the program, now you should back that marketing up with updates on your progress. You also want to keep the existence of the program in people’s minds. Knowledge of your data governance program should become second nature to everyone in the company.
With these 8 steps you can start implementing an effective data governance program within your organization. A data governance program is an on-going principle that evolves and adapts over time. As your organization makes changes to its operations and use of data, your data governance program should reflect those changes. Let’s look forward together an start and effective data governance program today!
By: Jason Fishbain, Data Governance Practice Lead
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