Podcast: Data Governance is Mission Possible

The recent Information Management article Data – Who Cares! by Martin ABC Hansen of Platon has the provocative subtitle:

“If the need to care for data and manage it as an asset is so obvious, then why isn’t it happening?”

Hansen goes on to explain some of the possible reasons under an equally provocative section titled “Mission Impossible.” It is a really good article that I recommend reading, and it also prompted me to record my thoughts on the subject in a new podcast:

You can also download this podcast (MP3 file) by clicking on this link: Data Governance is Mission Possible

Some of the key points covered in this approximately 15 minute OCDQ Podcast include:

Data is a strategic corporate asset because high quality data serves as a solid foundation for an organization’s success, empowering people, enabled by technology, to make better business decisions and optimize business performance

Data is an asset owned by the entire enterprise, and not owned by individual business units nor individual people

Data governance provides a framework for data stewardship, data quality, and effective data usage

Data governance is the strategic alignment of people throughout the organization through the definition and enforcement of the declared policies that govern the complex ways in which people, business processes, data, and technology interact

Five steps for enforcing data governance policies:
1. Documentation – Use straightforward, natural language to document your policies in a way everyone can understand
2. Communication – Effective communication requires that you encourage open discussion and debate of all viewpoints
3. Metrics – Meaningful metrics can be effectively measured, and represent the business impact of data governance
4. Remediation – Correct any combination of business process, technology, data, and people—and sometimes all four
5. Refinement – Dynamically evolve and adapt your data governance policies—as well as their associated metrics