At the beginning of the year is a good time to set a goal of getting started with data governance or data intelligence (or a restart). This blog post will discuss the key elements (goals, roadmap, buy-in, content, points of engagement, data stewardship, communication, and solution) that we say are needed for getting started with an an organizational data governance (and data intelligence) initiative. With data governance you are dealing with people and organizational change. It's going to take time and do not under estimate the amount of resources, time, and effort it will take. It was a few years back when our Aaron Walker wrote a blog post titled "Getting Started with Data Governance". Since then we have created many resources on the topic which can be found in this blog post.
Following are the elements we believe are necessary for getting started with data intelligence and data governance:
Have Clear Goals - Clear data governance goals on why your organization is dong data intelligence and governance should be known. Resource: Start with Why Video
Create a Pragmatic and Prioritized Roadmap - Do an assessment and create a roadmap with high-level summary information along with lower-level details regarding current data governance status and rollout phases. Estimates should be reliable and reasonable. A communication plan should also be part of the roadmap. Resource: Roadmap Recorded Webinar
Gain Buy-in for Goals and Roadmap - develop an established data governance buy-in either from the top down or from the bottom up as you roll things out. Resource: Creating Organization Buy-in for Data Governance Blog Post
Create Data-related Content Enough for a Minimum Content Tipping Point - get a certain amount of data governance content created before you really roll out your data governance initiative. Import content if possible or get a solution like the Data Cookbook that integrates with data systems. Having a business glossary will allow folks to be on the same page. Doing an inventory of your data systems will aid in the data governance success. Resources: Data Governance Content Blog Post and Video
Work on Data Governance Points of Engagement and the Data Help Desk - have good data governance processes in place so staff understands how to make data requests and report data quality issues as well as how to access content. And make sure data stewards know what their role is. You want to have a data help desk, just-in-time data governance and a customer service approach to data governance. Resource: Resources for Just-in-Time Data Governance / Data Intelligence and Help Desk / Customer Service Approach Blog Post
Get in Place Champions, Oversight, and Data Steward Triage - Put in place people who are going to believe in data governance and promote it. Train these individuals properly. You need a data stewards’ group and members of leadership team to be supportive of data governance. Appointing the wrong people to key data intelligence roles will cause issues. You need to have an understanding on what the responsibilities will be for these individuals. Make sure there is clear accountablility. Resource: Data Steward Resources Blog Post
Communicate - Have a plan in place and communicate to organization management, data stewards, and data consumers data-related information relevant to them and the status of the data governance/data intelligence initiative. Be as transparent as possible. Resource: Have Data Governance Communication Plan Blog Post
Have a Data Governance and Data Intelligence Solution in Place - And lastly you need to have a great data intelligence partner like IData Inc. and a solution in place like the Data Cookbook. A solution will allow all the data-related information (content) to be in one place and provide a framework necessary for success.
If you would like to watch our hour long recorded webinar on the subject of getting started then click here.
Hope this blog post and the mentioned resources were of assistance to you. All our data governance and data intelligence resources (blog posts, videos, and recorded webinars) can be accessed from our data governance resources page.
IData has a solution, the Data Cookbook, that can aid the employees and the organization in its data governance, data intelligence, data stewardship and data quality initiatives. IData also has experts that can assist with data governance, reporting, integration and other technology services on an as needed basis. Feel free to contact us and let us know how we can assist.
Photo Credit: StockSnap_EIQTJEJYF6_GrowingPlant_GettingStarted #B1305
