Quick Summary of What is Data Governance and Key Best Practices

We are often asked about data governance (or as we call it data intelligence) such as what is it and what are some key best practices in data governance.  This post summarizes our thoughts on this. We have many recorded webinars (including a 30 minute overview of Data Governance) that are available on these topics that will go into more detail.   

What is Data Governance?

(If you would rather see a video on our thoughts on What is Data Governance for Higher Education check out this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIUlOAWpLkc)

Governing What? (the content)

• Data Definitions
• Specifications - Reports/Extracts
• Data Requests
• Data System Inventory and Lineage
• Data Quality
• Data Access
• Data Security

 What is Governance? (the stewardship, processes, completeness and adoption)

• Stewardship
• Standard, Controlled, and Understood Processes
• Agreed-upon and Complete Information
• Adoption, Buy-in, and Use of Information

Data Governance Best Practices

(If you would rather see a video on our thoughts on an Overview of Data Governance Best Practices for Higher Education check out this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfd_Kk-GU_s)

1. Data Request Process
2. Knowledge Base - Dictionary, Data System Inventory and Specifications
3. Data Stewardship
4. Just-in-time Data Governance
5. Building Trust during Report Consumption

Another way to explain data governance is by asking yourself these questions and evaluating the answers:

1. What does the data mean? (definitions and specifications)
2. What may I do with this data? (security)
3. Where is the data? (inventory and lineage)
4. What is the quality of the data? (quality)
5. Where did this data come from? (lineage and specifications)
6. How do I get the data? (access and data requests)

Now that you know what it is, why is it important?  Data governance provides a clear path from questions to answer.  With Data governance everyone shares an understanding of the reported data and what it means.  Reports facilitate better decision making when data governance is in place and there is trust in the data.  Having a data governance solution like the Data Cookbook that has an extensive knowledge base and efficient data request system makes implementing data governance much easier.

If you would like more information regarding our data governance services or our Data Cookbook solution, which is the leading higher education solution for data governance, then feel free to .

Check out the Pragmatic Data Governance Defined for Higher Education eBook

(Image credit Icons_33 Data Governance #1017)