Data governance can be a complex topic and is often a huge undertaking. You are responsible for the implementation of data governance in your organization. There are many ways this could go wrong. You are responsible for thousands upon thousands of hours and possibly millions of budget dollars. Therefore, you must ensure a smooth, coordinated, and effective rollout.
Spend your time now planning your rollout. It will most likely pay off later with substantial cost savings. Learn how to plan your data governance rollout to ensure success.
1. Communicate Effectively
Effective data governance implementations are built on effective communication. This is why it ranks first on our list. Your program must be communicated to the organization. It empowers your employees when you share not only the “what”, but also the “why” of the implementation. Does it help to share data among organizational silos or improve departmental results? Your implementation could open up new avenues of business and engage new business partners. Your employees will make better decisions if they understand the “why” behind your implementation. And better implementation is possible because of those decisions.
It is important to make sure that employees communicate both upward and downward. Many times, employees who are responsible for daily tasks related to data governance are at the line level. Line-level employees cannot often communicate important issues up the management ladder, which can result in important information being lost and/or missed. By training your employees at the line level on data governance, you can increase your implementation’s success chances. Email templates and public mailing list options might be considered to assist employees in identifying data governance issues.
If you start from scratch, data governance implementations are much more effective than any potential roadblocks.
2. Engage all stakeholders early
Effective data governance implementations must include a large number of relevant roles. Implementation will be ruined if you fail to identify and involve key stakeholders at an early stage. Important to remember that engagement is not limited to keeping these stakeholders informed. They bring business knowledge and expertise to the table.
It is important to inform stakeholders about any decisions outside of their areas of responsibility and consult them on key decisions. Communicating effectively with stakeholders will allow you to identify potential pitfalls that might have been missed.
3. be sure to identify your sources of truth early
Business confusion is a common problem when it comes to data governance. When income data in your sales system does not match income amounts in your accounting software, it is impossible to make good decisions. Businesses are unable to rely on one source of truth when it comes to their data. If things don’t add together, it’s easy to make assumptions about the truth.
Data governance is about making decisions about where your data comes from. You don’t have to have one source for all your data. However, all your data should have one source. The first step is to determine if your income figures are based on sales data or accountant data. The process of getting data to the people who require it is easier once you’ve made those decisions.
4. Data Governance isn’t the Job of Developers
Many businesses fall for the common mistake of leaving data governance to their app developers. It makes sense because it is often your applications that generate the data.
Although application developers shouldn’t be allowed to worry about data governance, they can’t be held solely responsible. These people are subject to many competing demands. They are often subject to strict deadlines, performance requirements, bugs that need to be fixed and new features they must implement. Under pressure, a developer will likely cut corners in data governance when writing code.
5. Establish a Data Governance Framework, and stick to it
Data governance frameworks can simplify how you communicate about your implementation. A framework that is well-designed and implemented early will create a common language about data governance. This common language streamlines meetings and makes it simple to add new stakeholders to your process. Many businesses will adopt a framework but then decide to cut off the difficult parts. Refrain from falling prey to this temptation. You’ll soon discover that those parts are necessary for your implementation.
There are many different frameworks, each with its pros and disadvantages. The majority look like this is from the Data Governance Institute. It is a good idea to spend some time learning, and thinking about your company’s needs before you decide on a strategy. It will pay dividends down the line. You might consider organization training to help you get started. The first steps are often the hardest. The data governance consultant identifies and prioritizes data assets and develops standardized data management planning, oversight, and control procedures.
