Why a Data Governance Roadmap is Important

Data governance (or as we call it data intelligence) has many components and is not well understood by most people. It is very difficult to tackle all areas of data governance at once. And a data governance initiative is different for every organization as every organization has different data and needs.  A consensus on what the data governance initiative includes needs to happen or the organization will be surprised when the data governance team is working under totally different assumptions of the initiative goals. You cannot argue with the quote “If you fail to plan then your plan to fail.” Therefore, if you want your organization’s data governance initiative to succeed you need a roadmap which are the list of tasks the data governance team is going to work on initially. In this blog post we will cover why a data governance roadmap is critical, some things to do before creating it and some best practices about the roadmap.

The roadmap is your pragmatic data governance plan that is:

• Feasible
• Plays to your organization’s strengths
• Matches your priorities
• Communicates future priorities to those that may not have their goals in the first phases

We covered this topic previously in a blog post titled “Planning a Route on Your Data Governance Road Map”. In the post, Aaron Walker of IData mentioned to use your organization’s strategy, strengths, and pains to guide your decisions for the roadmap. Decide on a roadmap that will address real problems that real people at your organization are facing. And you need to break your larger goals into manageable, achievable tasks.

Usually, you have a data governance assessment done before creating your data governance roadmap. Use the assessment results to build the roadmap. You need to evaluate your current status of data governance, see what you need to work on and determine why the data governance initiative is necessary. And the organization’s strategy is factored in when creating the roadmap. A clear understanding of goals and outcomes are important to justify the means.

A roadmap provides comfort. Stakeholders want to feel that an initiative such as data governance is thought out and that the initiative will be managed. A roadmap does this.

You need to convey competency and have a data governance roadmap does that. Data governance does require people to contribute work and time which requires a buy-in for the goals. Buy-in is much more likely when there is a roadmap (plan) in place. A data governance initiative will require technology and people resources. A roadmap will provide what is necessary so that managers can factor in when the resources are necessary.  

A well implemented data governance initiative will save significant money and time in your organization. The challenge is that it may take time to see a return. Therefore, a roadmap sets expectations and prioritizes quick wins. Included in the roadmap is who are involved with the tasks and when they will get done. Again, you want to provide others with confidence that the initiative is being managed.

Communication is a key part of the data governance roadmap and initiative success as you want to keep the initiative top of mind and have data governance become part of the organization's culture. By publishing the roadmap, you let your staff know how long you expect the journey to take. And communicate with an update along the journey so that people stay engaged.

We hope you enjoyed this blog post and get a better understanding of the importance of having a data governance roadmap, what needs to be done before the roadmap is created and what is included in the roadmap.

Additional resources on data governance roadmaps and assessments can be found here.

IData has a solution, the Data Cookbook, that can aid the employees and the organization in its data governance, 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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