There are many people involved with data and data governance at an organization. This includes the users or consumers of the data who are entering information or looking at reports. Also, there are data stewards or subject matter experts that are handling the questions or resolving the data requests and issues. Another important group is the management or leadership team who is involved in overseeing the data governance initiative.
Culture
Having a data culture is critical for data governance success. Culture is many things, takes time to create, cannot be forced, and is created with training, policies, and management. Data is a valued organization asset. Data is continually flowing and changing and growing. An organization needs to properly manage data all the time. Data governance is not a one-time project or initiative and needs to be a part of the organization’s culture.
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Data Stewardship
At the start of implementing data governance there needs to be a team focused on implementing data governance. But for data governance ongoing support there needs to be a team of data stewards in place who handle the requests that come in and create the content. The better trained and knowledgeable these individuals are, the better the data governance at the organization will be.
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Blog Post: “Data Stewardship is Critical - Here are Some Resources”
Leadership
An important part of data governance is the data governance leadership and oversight committee. They have many responsibilities including setting a roadmap, getting buy-in, setting up data stewardship, setting up training for data stewards and other data governance, monitoring data governance activity, and resolving differing opinions.
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Points of Engagement and Processes
Value is only added if there is engagement with the data governance-related content that supports an organization’s goal. People need to have points of engagement (or entry) with data governance content for data governance to be successful. These data-related points of engagement or entry include such items as requesting new business glossary entries, requesting a new report, documenting a new integration, and reporting a data quality issue. Processes need to be in places that are accessible and easy to use. The data governance team must understand the staff’s perception of each data governance process’ importance and effectiveness. The team must also review these processes periodically with the purpose of improving them.
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Communication and Training
For a data governance and data intelligence initiative to succeed it needs to have trained staff and communication with those involved, which is every data user at the organization. Onboarding, training and communication plans need to be created, maintained, and modified.
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We hope that this blog post will assist you and your organization. Additional people-related resources can be found in this “Here’s Some Resources Regarding People and Data Governance / Data Intelligence” blog post.
Additional resources on data governance, data intelligence, and data management can be found at www.datacookbook.com/dg.IData has a solution, the Data Cookbook, that can aid the employees and the organization in its data governance and data intelligence efforts including data requests. 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.
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