Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organisational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives.
Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
Data governance is a strategic program that will help your organisation control data by managing the people, processes, and information technology needed to ensure that accurate and consistent data policies exist across varying lines of the business, enabling data-driven insight. This research will provide an overview of data governance and its importance to your organization, assist in making the case and securing buy-in for data governance, identify data governance best practices and the challenges associated with them, and provide guidance on how to implement data governance best practices for a successful launch.
This workbook will help your organisation understand the business and user context by leveraging your business capability map and value streams, developing data use cases using Info-Tech's framework for building data use cases, and gauging the current state of your organisation's data culture.
This business needs gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organisation. This template provides a framework for data requirements and a mapping methodology for creating use cases.
This tool will help your organisation plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organisation.
Use this template to document information about key data assets such as data definition, source system, possible values, data sensitivity, data steward, and usage of the data.
This template will help get the backing required to get a data governance project rolling. The program charter will help communicate the project purpose, define the scope, and identify the project team, roles, and responsibilities.
This set of policies supports the organisation's use and management of data to ensure that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of the organisation.
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Identify key business data assets that need to be governed.
Create a unifying vision for the data governance program.
Understand the value of data governance and how it can help the organisation better leverage its data.
Gain knowledge of how data governance can benefit both IT and the business.
1.1 Establish business context, value, and scope of data governance at the organisation.
1.2 Introduction to Info-Tech’s data governance framework.
1.3 Discuss vision and mission for data governance.
1.4 Understand your business architecture, including your business capability map and value streams.
1.5 Build use cases aligned to core business capabilities.
Sample use cases (tied to the business capability map) and a repeatable use case framework
Vision and mission for data governance
Assess which data contains value and/or risk and determine metrics that will determine how valuable the data is to the organisation.
Assess where the organisation currently stands in data governance initiatives.
Determine gaps between the current and future states of the data governance program.
Gain a holistic understanding of organisational data and how it flows through business units and systems.
Identify which data should fall under the governance umbrella.
Determine a practical starting point for the program.
2.1 Understand your current data governance capabilities and maturity.
2.2 Set target-state data governance capabilities.
Current state of data governance maturity
Definition of target state
Determine strategic initiatives and create a roadmap outlining key steps required to get the organisation to start enabling data-driven insights.
Determine timing of the initiatives.
Establish clear direction for the data governance program.
Step-by-step outline of how to create effective data governance, with true business-IT collaboration.
3.1 Evaluate and prioritise performance gaps.
3.2 Develop and consolidate data governance target-state initiatives.
3.3 Define the role of data governance: data domain to data governance role mapping.
Target-state data governance initiatives
Data domain to data governance role mapping
Consolidate the roadmap and other strategies to determine the plan of action from day one.
Create the required policies, procedures, and positions for data governance to be sustainable and effective.
Prioritised initiatives with dependencies mapped out.
A clearly communicated plan for data governance that will have full business backing.
4.1 Identify and prioritise next steps.
4.2 Define roles and responsibilities and complete a high-level RACI.
4.3 Wrap-up and discuss next steps and post-workshop support.
Initialised roadmap
Initialised RACI
Data governance does not sit as an island on its own in the organisation – it must align with and be driven by your enterprise governance. As you build out data governance in your organisation, it's important to keep in mind that this program is meant to be an enabling framework of oversight and accountabilities for managing, handling, and protecting your company's data assets. It should never be perceived as bureaucratic or inhibiting to your data users. It should deliver agreed-upon models that are conducive to your organisation's operating culture, offering clarity on who can do what with the data and via what means. Data governance is the key enabler for bringing high-quality, trusted, secure, and discoverable data to the right users across your organisation. Promote and drive the responsible and ethical use of data while helping to build and foster an organisational culture of data excellence.
Crystal Singh
Director, Research & Advisory, Data & Analytics Practice
Info-Tech Research Group
The amount of data within organisations is growing at an exponential rate, creating a need to adopt a formal approach to governing data. However, many organisations remain uninformed on how to effectively govern their data. Comprehensive data governance should define leadership, accountability, and responsibility related to data use and handling and be supported by a well-oiled operating model and relevant policies and procedures. This will help ensure the right data gets to the right people at the right time, using the right mechanisms.
Organisations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, and changing and maturing user landscape and demand for data. Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organisations miss the mark when their data governance efforts are not directly aligned to delivering measurable business value. Initiatives should support key strategic initiatives, as well as value streams and their underlying business capabilities.
Info-Tech's approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organisational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Organisations should:
Your organisation's value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operating costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and increased business risk.
As you embark on establishing data governance in your organisation, it's vital to ensure from the get-go that you define the drivers and business context for the program. Data governance should never be attempted without direction on how the program will yield measurable business value.
'Data processing and cleanup can consume more than half of an analytics team's time, including that of highly paid data scientists, which limits scalability and frustrates employees.' – Petzold, et al., 2020
'The productivity of employees across the organisation can suffer.' – Petzold, et al., 2020
Respondents to McKinsey's 2019 Global Data Transformation Survey reported that an average of 30% of their total enterprise time was spent on non-value-added tasks because of poor data quality and availability. – Petzold, et al., 2020
78% of companies (and 92% of top-tier companies) have a corporate initiative to become more data-driven. – Alation, 2020.
But despite these ambitions, there appears to be a 'data culture disconnect' – 58% of leaders overestimate the current data culture of their enterprises, giving a grade higher than the one produced by the study. – Fregoni, 2020.
Respond to industry disruptors
Optimise the way you serve your stakeholders and customers
Develop products and services to meet ever-evolving needs
Manage operations and mitigate risk
Data Disengaged
You have a low appetite for data and rarely use data for decision making.
Data Enabled
Technology, data architecture, and people and processes are optimised and supported by data governance.
Data Driven
You are differentiating and competing on data and analytics; described as a 'data first' organisation. You're collaborating through data. Data is an asset.
Data governance is an enabling framework of decision rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities for data assets across the enterprise.
Data governance is:
If done correctly, data governance is not:
Conformance: Establishing data governance to meet regulations and compliance requirements.
Performance: Establishing data governance to fuel data-driven decision making for driving business value and managing and mitigating business risk.
'Albert Einstein is said to have remarked, "The world cannot be changed without changing our thinking." What is clear is that the greatest barrier to data success today is business culture, not lagging technology.' – Randy Bean, 2020
'It is not enough for companies to embrace modern data architectures, agile methodologies, and integrated business-data teams, or to establish centres of excellence to accelerate data initiatives, when only about 1 in 4 executives reported that their organisation has successfully forged a data culture.'– Randy Bean, 2020
Data-driven culture = 'data matters to our company'
Data debt is 'the accumulated cost that is associated with the sub-optimal governance of data assets in an enterprise, like technical debt.'
Data debt is a problem for 78% of organisations.
40% of organisations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.
66% of organisations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.
33% of organisations are not able to get value from a new system or technology investment.
30% of organisations are unable to become data-driven.
Source: Experian, 2020
Only 3% of companies' data meets basic quality standards. (Source: Nagle, et al., 2017)
Organisations suspect 28% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way. (Source: Experian, 2020)
Only 51% of organisations consider the current state of their CRM or ERP data to be clean, allowing them to fully leverage it. (Source: Experian, 2020)
35% of organisations say they're not able to see a ROI for data management initiatives. (Source: Experian, 2020)
Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you:
While data governance tools and technologies are no panacea, leverage their automated and AI-enabled capabilities to augment your data governance program.
Put data governance into the context of the business:
Start substantiating early on how you are going to measure success as your data governance program evolves.
Key considerations:
Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition
Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.
Data Governance Charter and Policies
Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.
Data Culture Diagnostic
Understand the organisation's current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.
Use Case Build and Prioritisation
Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritise accordingly.
Business Data Glossary
Build and/or refresh the business' glossary for addressing data definitions and standardisation issues.
Tools & Technology
Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).
Data governance leadership and sponsorship is key.
Ensure strategic business alignment.
Build and foster a culture of data excellence.
Evolve along the data journey.
Make data governance an enabler, not a hindrance.
Your organisation's value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the impact of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.
Data governance should not sit as an island in your organisation. It must continuously align with the organisation's enterprise governance function. It shouldn't be perceived as a pet project of IT, but rather as an enterprise-wide, business-driven initiative.
Ensure your data governance program delivers measurable business value by aligning the associated data governance initiatives with the business architecture. Leverage the measures of success or KPIs of the underlying business capabilities to demonstrate the value data governance has yielded for the organisation.
Data governance remains the foundation of all forms of reporting and analytics. Advanced capabilities such as AI and machine learning require effectively governed data to fuel their success.
Tailor your data literacy program to meet your organisation's needs, filling your range of knowledge gaps and catering to your different levels of stakeholders. When it comes to rolling out a data literacy program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your data literacy program is intended to fill the knowledge gaps about data, as they exist in your organisation. It should be targeted across the board – from your executive leadership and management through to the subject matter experts across different lines of the business in your organisation.
1. Build Business and User Context | 2. Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities | 3. Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan | |
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Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:
Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook
Use the Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook as you plan, build, roll out, and scale data governance in your organisation.
Data Use Case Framework Template
This template takes you through a business needs gathering activity to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organisation's data-related problems and opportunities.
Use this template to document the key data assets that are to be governed and create a data flow diagram for your organisation.
Data Culture Diagnostic and Scorecard
Leverage Info-Tech's Data Culture Diagnostic to understand how your organisation scores across 10 areas relating to data culture.
Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:
Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool
Leverage this tool to assess your current data governance capabilities and plot your target state accordingly.
This tool will help you plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organisation.
Data Governance Program Charter Template
This template will help get the backing required to get a data governance project rolling. The program charter will help communicate the project purpose, define the scope, and identify the project team, roles, and responsibilities.
This policy establishes uniformed data governance standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of your organisation
Defined data accountability & responsibility
Shared knowledge & common understanding of data assets
Elevated trust & confidence in traceable data
Improved data ROI & reduced data debt
Support for ethical use and handling of data in a culture of excellence
In phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint, we will help you establish the business context, define your business drivers and KPIs, and understand your current data governance capabilities and strengths.
In phase 3, we will help you develop a plan and a roadmap for addressing any gaps and improving the relevant data governance capabilities so that data is well positioned to deliver on those defined business metrics.
'Our team, has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.'
'Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keeps us on track.'
'We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.'
'Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.'
1. Build Business and User context | 2. Understand Your Current Data Governance Capabilities | 3. Build a Target State Roadmap and Plan | |
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A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organisation. A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.
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Establish Business Context and Value | Understand Current Data Governance Capabilities and Plot Target-State Levels | Build Data Domain to Data Governance Role Mapping | Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State | |
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'When business users are invited to participate in the conversation around data with data users and IT, it adds a fundamental dimension — business context. Without a real understanding of how data ties back to the business, the value of analysis and insights can get lost.' – Jason Lim, Alation
This phase will guide you through the following activities:
This phase involves the following participants:
Activities
1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities
1.1.2 Categorise Your Organisation's Key Business Capabilities
1.1.3 Develop a Strategy Map Tied to Data Governance
This step will guide you through the following activities:
Outcomes of this step
Gaining a sound understanding of your business architecture (value streams and business capabilities) is a critical foundation for establishing and sustaining a data governance program that delivers measurable business value.
Confirm your organisation's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:
Note: A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities are business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as 'Marketing' or 'Research and Development.' They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of each other, and typically will have a defined business outcome.
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Output
Materials
Participants
For more information, refer to Info-Tech's Document Your Business Architecture.
Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities. These value realisation activities, in turn, depend on data.
If the organisation does not have a business architecture function to conduct and guide Activity 1.1.1, you can leverage the following approach:
Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
Your organisation's value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face the possibilities of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, negative impact to reputation and brand, and/or increased exposure to business risk.
Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities.
Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
For this value stream, download Info-Tech's Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.
Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities.
Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
For this value stream, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.
Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities.
Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
For this value stream, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.
Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities.
Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
For this value stream, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.
Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities.
Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.
For this value stream, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.
A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities represent stable business functions and typically will have a defined business outcome.
Business capabilities can be thought of as business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as 'Marketing' or 'Research and Development.'
If your organisation doesn't already have a business capability map, you can leverage the following approach to build one. This initiative requires a good understanding of the business. By working with the right stakeholders, you can develop a business capability map that speaks a common language and accurately depicts your business.
Working with the stakeholders as described above:
A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation's business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.
For more information, refer to Info-Tech's Document Your Business Architecture.
A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation's business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.
Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.
Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realisation capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.
Example business capability map for: Retail Banking
For this business capability map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.
A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation's business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.
Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.
Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realisation capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.
Example business capability map for: Higher Education
For this business capability map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.
A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation's business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.
Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.
Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realisation capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.
Example business capability map for: Local Government
For this business capability map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.
A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation's business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.
Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.
Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realisation capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.
Example business capability map for: Manufacturing
For this business capability map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.
A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation's business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your data governance program must support.
Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.
Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of data and data governance in supporting the very value realisation capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the data governance program.
Example business capability map for: Retail
For this business capability map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.
Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organisation.
This categorisation/prioritisation exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritisation, and the overall optimisation of data and data governance.
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Output
Materials
Participants
For more information, refer to Info-Tech's Document Your Business Architecture.
This exercise is useful in ensuring the data governance program is focused and aligned to support the priorities and direction of the business.
Example: Retail
For this business capability map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.
Identify the strategic objectives for the business. Knowing the key strategic objectives will drive business-data governance alignment. It's important to make sure the right strategic objectives of the organisation have been identified and are well understood.
Guide to creating your map: Starting with strategic objectives, map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance to initiatives that support those capabilities. This is one approach to help you prioritise the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organisation.
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Output
Materials
Participants
Download Info-Tech's Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook
Start with the strategic objectives, then map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the data and data governance initiatives that support those capabilities. This process will help you prioritise the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organisation.
Example: Retail
For this strategy map, download Info-Tech's Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.
Activities
1.2.1 Build High-Value Use Cases
This step will guide you through the following activities:
Outcomes of this step
One of the most important aspects when building use cases is to ensure you include KPIs or measures of success. You have to be able to demonstrate how the use case ties back to the organisational priorities or delivers measurable business value. Leverage the KPIs and success factors of the business capabilities tied to each particular use case.
Tip: Don't conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.
This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around data-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organisation.
Tip: Don't conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.
Input
Output
Materials
Participants
Download Info-Tech's Data Use Case Framework Template
Leveraging your business capability map, build use cases that align with the organisation's key business capabilities.
Consider:
Info-Tech's Data Requirements and Mapping Methodology for Creating Use Cases
The resulting use cases are to be prioritised and leveraged for informing the business case and the data governance capabilities optimisation plan.
Taken from Info-Tech's Data Use Case Framework Template
This phase will guide you through the following activities:
This phase involves the following participants:
This step will guide you through the following activities:
Outcomes of this step
Leverage Info-Tech's: Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool to assess your current data governance capabilities and plot your target state accordingly.
This tool will help your organisation plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organisation.
A well-defined data governance program will deliver:
The key components of establishing sustainable enterprise data governance, taken from Info-Tech's Data Governance Framework:
The office of the chief data officer (CDO):
'Compared to most of their C-suite colleagues, the CDO is faced with a unique set of problems. The role is still being defined. The chief data officer is bringing a new dimension and focus to the organisation: "data." '
– Carruthers and Jackson, 2020
'The title matters. In my opinion, you can't have a CDO without executive authority. Otherwise no one will listen.'
– Anonymous European CDO
'The reporting structure depends on who's the 'glue' that ties together all these uniquely skilled individuals.'
– John Kemp, Senior Director, Executive Services, Info-Tech Research Group
Who are best suited to be data owners?
Data owners are typically senior business leaders with the following characteristics:
Data governance working groups:
Traditionally, data stewards:
Your organisation's value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.
Enabling business capabilities with data governance role definitions
'Generate excitement for data: When people are excited and committed to the vision of data enablement, they're more likely to help ensure that data is high quality and safe.' – Petzold, et al., 2020
Operating Model
Defining your data governance operating model will help create a well-oiled program that sustainably delivers value to the organisation and manages risks while building and fostering a culture of data excellence along the way. Some organisations are able to establish a formal data governance office, whether independent or attached to the office of the chief data officer. Regardless of how you are organised, data governance requires a home, a leader, and an operating model to ensure its sustainability and evolution.
Examples of focus areas for your operating model:
The key is to determine what style will work best in your organisation, taking into consideration your organisational culture, executive leadership support (present and ongoing), catalysts such as other enterprise-wide transformative and modernisation initiatives, and/or regulatory and compliances drivers.
Furthermore, communication with the wider organisation of data producers, users, and consumers is one of the core elements of the overall data governance communications plan.
Communication is vital for ensuring acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users as well as for sharing success stories of the program.
'Leading organisations invest in change management to build data supporters and convert the sceptics. This can be the most difficult part of the program, as it requires motivating employees to use data and encouraging producers to share it (and ideally improve its quality at the source)[.]' – Petzold, et al., 2020
Examples of focus areas for your operating model (continued):
Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the steps necessary to adapt and reduce potential confrontation. By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.
Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.
Aligning your data governance to the organisation's value realisation activities enables you to leverage the KPIs of those business capabilities to demonstrate tangible and measurable value. Use terms and language that will resonate with your senior business leadership.
Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organisation. That disruption doesn't have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.
'Data standards are the rules by which data are described and recorded. In order to share, exchange, and understand data, we must standardise the format as well as the meaning.' – U.S. Geological Survey
Examples of data policies:
See Info-Tech's Data Governance Policy Template: This policy establishes uniformed data governance standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of your organisation.
'Organisational culture can accelerate the application of analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies away from risky outcomes.' – Petzold, et al., 2020
What does a healthy data culture look like?
Building a culture of data excellence.
Leverage Info-Tech's Data Culture Diagnostic to understand your organisation's culture around data.
Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for more information on the Data Culture Diagnostic
'People are at the heart of every culture, and one of the biggest challenges to creating a data culture is bringing everyone into the fold.' – Lim, Alation
'Companies that have succeeded in their data-driven efforts understand that forging a data culture is a relentless pursuit, and magic bullets and bromides do not deliver results.' – Randy Bean, 2020
There is a trusted, single source of data the whole company can draw from.
There's a business glossary and data catalogue and users know what the data fields mean.
Users have access to data and analytics tools. Employees can leverage data immediately to resolve a situation, perform an activity, or make a decision – including frontline workers.
Data literacy, the ability to collect, manage, evaluate, and apply data in a critical manner, is high.
Data is used for decision making. The company encourages decisions based on objective data and the intelligent application of it.
Data governance will support your organisation's ethical use and handling of data by facilitating definition around important factors, such as:
Activities
2.2.1 Gauge Your Organisation's Current Data Culture
This step will guide you through the following activities:
Outcomes of this step
Conduct a Data Culture Survey or Diagnostic
The objectives of conducting a data culture survey are to increase the understanding of the organisation's data culture, your users' appetite for data, and their appreciation for data in terms of governance, quality, accessibility, ownership, and stewardship. To perform a data culture survey:
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Output
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Participants
Contact your Info-Tech Account Representative for details on launching a Data Culture Diagnostic.
'Achieving data success is a journey, not a sprint. Companies that set a clear course, with reasonable expectations and phased results over a period of time, get to the destination faster.' – Randy Bean, 2020
This phase will guide you through the following activities:
This phase involves the following participants:
This step will guide you through the following activities:
Download Info-Tech's Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook
See Info-Tech's Data Governance Program Charter Template: A program charter template to sell the importance of data governance to senior executives.
This template will help get the backing required to get a data governance project rolling. The program charter will help communicate the project purpose, define the scope, and identify the project team, roles, and responsibilities.
Outcomes of this step
Key considerations:
Sample milestones:
Data Governance Leadership & Org Structure Definition
Define the home for data governance and other key roles around ownership and stewardship, as approved by senior leadership.
Data Governance Charter and Policies
Create a charter for your program and build/refresh associated policies.
Data Culture Diagnostic
Understand the organisation's current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.
Use Case Build and Prioritisation
Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritise accordingly.
Business Data Glossary/catalogue
Build and/or refresh the business' glossary for addressing data definitions and standardisation issues.
Tools & Technology
Explore the tools and technology offering in the data governance space that would serve as an enabler to the program. (e.g. RFI, RFP).
Define key roles for getting started.
Start small and then scale – deliver early wins.
Start understanding data knowledge gaps, building the program, and delivering.
Make the available data governance tools and technology work for you.
Data Governance Program Charter Template – A program charter template to sell the importance of data governance to senior executives.
This template will help get the backing required to get a data governance project rolling. The program charter will help communicate the project purpose, define the scope, and identify the project team, roles, and responsibilities.
Sample data governance roadmap milestones:
Key Considerations:
Your organisation's value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively governed data. Without this, you face elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, and exposure to increased business risk.
Enable business capabilities with data governance role definitions.
These are some of the data governance tools and technology players. Check out SoftwareReviews for help making better software decisions.
The data steward must be empowered and backed politically with decision-making authority, or the role becomes stale and powerless.
Ensuring compliance can be difficult. Data stewards may experience pushback from stakeholders who must deliver on the policies, procedures, and processes that the data steward enforces.
Because the data steward must enforce data processes and liaise with so many different people and departments within the organisation, the data steward role should be their primary full-time job function – where possible.
However, in circumstances where budget doesn't allow a full-time data steward role, develop these skills within the organisation by adding data steward responsibilities to individuals who are already managing data sets for their department or line of business.
A stewardship role is generally more about managing the cultural change that data governance brings. This requires the steward to have exceptional interpersonal skills that will assist in building relationships across departmental boundaries and ensuring that all stakeholders within the organisation believe in the initiative, understand the anticipated outcomes, and take some level of responsibility for its success.
Data governance initiatives must contain a strong organisational disruption component. A clear and concise communication strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.
By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.
Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organisation's culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.
Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organisation, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.
Attempting to implement change without an effective communication plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.
Launching a data governance initiative is guaranteed to disrupt the culture of the organisation. That disruption doesn't have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.
To create a strong vision for data governance, there must be participation from the business and IT. A common vision will articulate the state the organisation wishes to achieve and how it will reach that state. Visioning helps to develop long-term goals and direction.
Once the vision is established, it must be effectively communicated to everyone, especially those who are involved in creating, managing, disposing, or archiving data.
The data governance program should be periodically refined. This will ensure the organisation continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organisation grows and data needs evolve.
A successful data governance communications plan involves making the initiative visible and promoting staff awareness. Educate the team on how data is collected, distributed, and used, what internal processes use data, and how that data is used across departmental boundaries.
By demonstrating how data governance will affect staff directly, you create a deeper level of understanding across lines of business, and ultimately, a higher level of acceptance for new processes, rules, and guidelines.
A clear and concise communications strategy will raise the profile of data governance within the organisation, and staff will understand how the program will benefit them and how they can share in the success of the initiative. This will end up providing support for the initiative across the board.
Focus on literacy and communication: include training in the communication plan. Providing training for data users on the correct procedures for updating and verifying the accuracy of data, data quality, and standardised data policies will help validate how data governance will benefit them and the organisation.
The data governance program is responsible for continuously promoting the value of data to the organisation. The data governance program should seek a variety of ways to educate the organisation and data stakeholders on the benefit of data management.
Even if data policies and procedures are created, they will be highly ineffective if they are not properly communicated to the data producers and users alike.
There needs to be a communication plan that highlights how the data producer and user will be affected, what their new responsibilities are, and the value of that change.
To learn how to manage organisational change, refer to Info-Tech's Master Organisational Change Management Practices.
It can be difficult to understand what a policy is, and what it is not. Start by identifying the differences between a policy and standards, guidelines, and procedures.
The following are key elements of a good policy:
Heading | Descriptions |
---|---|
Purpose | Describes the factors or circumstances that mandate the existence of the policy. Also states the policy's basic objectives and what the policy is meant to achieve. |
Scope | Defines to whom and to what systems this policy applies. Lists the employees required to comply or simply indicates 'all' if all must comply. Also indicates any exclusions or exceptions, i.e. those people, elements, or situations that are not covered by this policy or where special consideration may be made. |
Definitions | Define any key terms, acronyms, or concepts that will be used in the policy. A standard glossary approach is sufficient. |
Policy Statements | Describe the rules that comprise the policy. This typically takes the form of a series of short prescriptive and proscriptive statements. Sub-dividing this section into sub-sections may be required depending on the length or complexity of the policy. |
Non-Compliance | Clearly describe consequences (legal and/or disciplinary) for employee non-compliance with the policy. It may be pertinent to describe the escalation process for repeated non-compliance. |
Agreement | Confirms understanding of the policy and provides a designated space to attest to the document. |
Most organisations have problems with policy management. These include:
Technology should be used as a means to solve these problems and effectively monitor, enforce, and communicate policies.
Product Overview
myPolicies is a web-based solution to create, distribute, and manage corporate policies, procedures, and forms. Our solution provides policy managers with the tools they need to mitigate the risk of sanctions and reduce the administrative burden of policy management. It also enables employees to find the documents relevant to them and build a culture of compliance.
Some key success factors for policy management include:
Data policies are short statements that seek to manage the creation, acquisition, integrity, security, compliance, and quality of data. These policies vary amongst organisations, depending on your specific data needs.
Trust
Availability
Security
Compliance
Info-Tech's Data Management Policy:
This policy establishes uniform data management standards and identifies the shared responsibilities for assuring the integrity of the data and that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of the organisation. This policy applies to all critical data and to all staff who may be creators and/or users of such data.
Info-Tech's Data Entry Policy:
The integrity and quality of data and evidence used to inform decision making is central to both the short-term and long-term health of an organisation. It is essential that required data be sourced appropriately and entered into databases and applications in an accurate and complete manner to ensure the reliability and validity of the data and decisions made based on the data.
Info-Tech's Data Provenance Policy:
Create policies to keep your data's value, such as:
Info-Tech's Data Integration and Virtualisation Policy:
This policy aims to assure the organisation, staff, and other interested parties that data integration, replication, and virtualisation risks are taken seriously. Staff must use the policy (and supporting guidelines) when deciding whether to integrate, replicate, or virtualise data sets.
Although they can be highly subjective, metrics are extremely important to data governance success.
Policies are great to have from a legal perspective, but unless they are followed, they will not benefit the organisation.
Review metrics on an ongoing basis with those data owners/stewards who are accountable, the data governance steering committee, and the executive sponsors.
Examples include:
Have a fundamental data definition model for the entire business to adhere to. Those in the positions that generate and produce data must follow the common set of standards developed by the steering committee and be accountable for the creation of valid, clean data.
By planning for and efficiently communicating any changes that a data governance initiative may bring, many initial issues can be resolved from the outset.
Governance recommendations will require significant business change. The redesign of a substantial number of data processes affecting various business units will require an overhaul of the organisation's culture, thought processes, and procedures surrounding its data. Preparing people for change well in advance will allow them to take the necessary steps to adapt and reduce potential confrontation.
Because a data governance initiative will involve data-driven business units across the organisation, the governance team must present a compelling case for data governance to ensure acceptance of new processes, rules, guidelines, and technologies by all data producers and users.
Attempting to implement change without an effective communications plan can result in disagreements over data control and stalemates between stakeholder units. The recommendations of the governance group must reflect the needs of all stakeholders or there will be pushback.
Data governance initiatives will very likely bring about a level of organisational disruption. A clear and concise communications strategy that conveys milestones and success stories will address the various concerns that business unit stakeholders may have.
Launching a data governance program will bring with it a level of disruption to the culture of the organisation. That disruption doesn't have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.
Data Classification Policy, Standard, and Procedure
Data Retention Policy and Procedure
Metadata Management Policy, Standard, and Procedure
Contact your account representative for more information.
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To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
Build Your Business and User Context
Work with your core team of stakeholders to build out your data governance strategy map, aligning data governance initiatives with business capabilities, value streams, and, ultimately, your strategic priorities.
Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State
Develop a data governance future state roadmap and plan based on an understanding of your current data governance capabilities, your operating environment, and the driving needs of your business.
Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.
Streamline your data management program with our simplified framework.
Be the voice of data in a time of transformation.
Name | Position | Company |
---|---|---|
David N. Weber | Executive Director - Planning, Research and Effectiveness | Palm Beach State College |
Izabela Edmunds | Information Architect | Mott MacDonald |
Andy Neill | Practice Lead, Data & Analytics | Info-Tech Research Group |
Dirk Coetsee | Research Director, Data & Analytics | Info-Tech Research Group |
Graham Price | Executive Advisor, Advisory Executive Services | Info-Tech Research Group |
Igor Ikonnikov | Research Director, Data & Analytics | Info-Tech Research Group |
Jean Bujold | Senior Workshop Delivery Director | Info-Tech Research Group |
Rajesh Parab | Research Director, Data & Analytics | Info-Tech Research Group |
Reddy Doddipalli | Senior Workshop Director | Info-Tech Research Group |
Valence Howden | Principal Research Director, CIO | Info-Tech Research Group |
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