Data is the most important and critical asset that impacts businesses all over the world today. Every strategic business decision is backed by and made based on data. In fact, companies that leveraged big data on average increased their profits by 8%. That is why your organization’s data needs to be reliable, accurate, high quality, and easily available to all the parties concerned with it. This is where data governance comes into the picture.
Data governance, in a nutshell, is the orchestration of setting up policies, technologies, and responsibilities to ensure an organization’s data is accurate and handled properly when being entered, stored, modified, accessed, and deleted.
Setting up data governance can be a daunting process as it involves multiple steps, implementing many policies, and coordinating with various departments and people. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Although data governance is a big project, you don’t have to complete the entire project in one go, you just need to take the first step and then the next, and then the next.
Steps to Implement a Successful Data Governance Strategy
- Identify your project
If this is your first data governance project, choose wisely as this will pave the way for your future data governance projects. Your first project must deliver a good ROI or a return on effort in a reasonable time frame and drive value for the business. Choose a project that can provide metrics that show calculated success and progress in the goals of the organization. - Set some goals
When setting your goals, don’t be vague. Be as specific as possible, utilizing real, attainable numbers. Most data governance projects fail because the goals are too vague, or the expectations do not match. Here’s what your goals should NOT look like:
– Improve the efficiency of certain projects that have been falling behind because of low-quality data
– Ensure people comply with regulations more effectively
– Use consistent and trusted data across the organization to make strategic business decisions - Assign the right people
Even when the actual team for data governance is small, they’ll impact a huge group of people. From employees to customers to partners, pretty much everyone uses data. When multiple people come together for one project, it is likely to be presented with multiple differing opinions that can slow the process. In such situations, having a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (sample below) can help. The purpose of this matrix would be to assign the right people for the right task who then approve/provide feedback at the right time so that everyone is aware of their responsibilities. To make it easier you can divide all the concerned people into the following categories:
a) Person responsible – project manager who assigns resources and builds the case
b) Person accountable – one who takes ownership of major decisions and results of the program
c) Consultants – IT or subject matter experts (SMEs) who help understand the project
d) Informed – people affected by data governance efforts but don’t have direct say in the workings of the project
Sample Responsibility Assignment Matrix - Define the processes
The processes you set in place for your data governance teams need to be easily repeatable and should support the reality of the task. Here are four processes that support all data governance programs:
a) Discover – Find out and understand the data being governed
b) Define – Record all data definitions, processes, policies, and standards; assign ownership and define the key metrics
c) Apply – Implement the business rules and data governance policies
d) Analyze and monitor – Analyze the results of data governance policies and monitor compliances - Choose the right technology
Data governance projects are ever-evolving, just like everything else in technology. New developments in projects and risks constantly appear. You need the right technology partner that can deliver value, adapt quickly, and evolve when your requirements change. Consider the following parameters when choosing a technology partner for your data governance projects:
– Capability to migrate to the cloud seamlessly and without loss of data
– Allows enhanced collaboration and information-sharing
– Provides scalability that comes with agility
– Equips reduced time and turnover dependencies
– Ability to build and manage secure, compliant environments
– Potential to conduct rapid analysis, prediction, and processing with AI/ML
CloudMoyo can democratize your data with all the above services and more! We can help your data governance projects be seamless, agile, and efficient with the following services:
- Master Data Management
Gain access to a unified master data service across your enterprise with Master Data Management. Ensure accurate, consistent, and complete master data access across the enterprise and to business partners. - Enterprise Data Management
Consolidate your organizational data across multiple sources to increase efficiency and ensure consistent and scalable data architecture. Leverage Enterprise Data Management and enhance organizational capacity to integrate, govern, secure, and disseminate data from multiple data streams. - Modern Data Warehouse
Support your business intelligence activities with a central data management system to store and consolidate data from multiple sources within the organization. Rapidly integrate data in your business environment, improve efficiency, enable innovative new data models, and receive better insights.
What Are You Waiting For?
Designing a data governance is a tall order but the good news is that hard work always pays off. Implementing high-quality data governance across your organization will streamline your business not just for your employees but also your customers and external stakeholders. It also empowers leadership teams and employees to make better decisions quickly and efficiently. CloudMoyo can help you start your data governance journey – get in touch with us to talk about transforming your organization digitally!
If you’d like to learn more about what data governance is and why it is important, head to this blog.
