Where do you start with data governance and data intelligence? Before starting, you want to have a roadmap and set goals. Check out our “Want to Know More About Data Governance Assessments and Roadmaps? Here's Some Resources” blog post. Some organizations start with data policies or business glossary, or a data system inventory or a combination of items. Few organizations start with a data system catalog. In this blog post we are going to discuss that a great place to start is with a data system catalog linked to a business glossary. In the past we have done other blog posts on getting started with data governance including “Start Small with Data Governance” as well as a video “Start with Why in Data Governance” and a recorded webinar “Getting Started with Data Governance”. All the getting started resources can be accessed in this blog post.
A business glossary focuses on functional information which is data system agnostic information. New business glossary content is more of an art. It requires orchestration, collaboration, and ongoing human effort. You are making decisions on content. You are thinking of well described definitions of things that are very specific and getting agreement from your whole organization. When done right, it is a beautiful thing. It is very powerful but it's a great effort. And frankly it is benefited by the information in the data system catalog. Additional resources on business glossary can be found in this blog post.
A data system catalog focuses on technical information which is data system specific information, the data fields and metadata. We hear from many that technical stuff (data system catalog) is hard. We want to just start with the functional business glossary and then we will add technical information later. We get it, but we are going to challenge you. What might be hard is just the necessary involvement of the IT folks. What is different from before is that these IT folks are now looking for a data system catalog tool. If you let them know that your concept of data governance is inclusive of their data system catalog interest, then you can help them with their efforts. You might even discover that the data system catalog stuff is easier than the business glossary. The data system catalog information is something that exists within your organization without having to think about it. You have bought an ERP system from one vendor, you bought a CRM from another vendor, and your BI team has developed the data warehouse. There is existing content that is already there for these data systems. Just a little bit of technical details and effort connects that content up so you can consume. Your data system catalog content takes a small amount of technical setup. Updates to the data system catalog can be made automatically. And a data system catalog is usually non-controversial in the organization. Whatever your priorities are, if they are related to data quality, privacy or security, having a data system catalog will help serve the business glossary as well. Additional resources on data systems inventory can be found in this blog post.
You have a business glossary with functional technical definitions and a data system catalog with data system details. You might just have a narrative description explaining a data field in a text box. What we want to do is to pull that out and point that to the data system catalog. If you've got that documentation, if you've got that metadata somewhere in your data governance knowledge base, then it is a lot easier to write data technical definitions. Security is important in an organization. Security items such as data access steps, privacy codes, data sharing agreements, and data retention policies can be associated with the business glossary and the data system catalog. You do not have to have a business glossary entry for every data field. The linkage between business glossary and data system catalog works both ways.
After the above data governance start, let the data requests come in and decide what needs to be done next. Use a just in time, help desk, and customer service approach to data governance. Find resources on this approach in our “Resources for Just-in-Time Data Governance / Data Intelligence and Help Desk / Customer Service Approach” blog post. This approach makes data governance and data intelligence efficient and effective.
We admit to a change in our thinking. We used to think about starting with the business glossary. The reality is that a business glossary takes a lot of time and effort to develop but a data system catalog with the right tools is something that can be done quickly. And they become more powerful when linked together.
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.
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