What Does Data Governance Team Do

Assess Projects After Completion

After each data governance project is completed, you shouldn’t merely pat yourself on the back and move on. After all, if the project wasn’t successful in achieving your goals, it will need to be adapted for the next initiative. Run some tests on your data to note changes and discuss with your team what processes should be streamlined and which ones need to be readjusted.

Tips For Choosing Your Data Governance Team

C-level support, the DPO, IT, data analysts, and SMEs in your Data Governance Council are the engine of a data governance team. But the focus of ongoing data governance will always come back to the point of use.

Examine the architecture of your data flows from the first point of contact throughout the entire data lifecycle. Identify those areas where data gives the most value, and where data creates the most risk. Data stakeholders closest to data value and data risk areas may be prime candidates for primary roles at the onset.

Ultimately, the goal is to create roles that are easily transferable with any turnovers. However, when initially kicking off a team, you want people who are motivated and care about your initiative. It will be their job to get everyone else in their line of business to care, so they should be data experts, skilled educators, and respected leaders in their departments.

Functions Of The Data Governance Team

As a Sr. Manager, Enterprise Data Governance at a food services company explains, the Data Governance teams scope of responsibility typically divides into three primary functions:

ArchitectTeam members help design a strategy to build enterprise data capabilities while partnering with data operations teams. They educate stakeholders across multiple data domains about how systems are designed, how data is captured, and how it can be leveraged.

InvestigatorThe team also identifies gaps in existing data processes and technology to help build business cases to address. By digging into these cases and finding solutions, they improve processes and display measurable ROI.

LibrarianLastly, they serve as librarians by cataloging data sources and business definitions. They also show how systems are connected through data linkage, which drives a better understanding of business intelligence metrics and reports.

While incorporating all of these functions may seem overwhelming, its important to remember that a Multi-Domain MDM solution can make these tasks more manageable.

Read Also: Federal Jobs Las Vegas

What Is Data Governance And Why Is It Important

Did you know: The worlds data volume will grow at a staggering 40% per year? Thats according to the Aureus Analytics report that projects growth trends from 2021-2026. As far back as the early 2000s, enterprises recognized data as a strategic asset of the company to guide strategic decision-making, promote experimentation to learn and improve, and deliver better business results.

But after public data breaches jolted well-known brands like Facebook and Yahoo, data security has become a top priority for enterprises. This led to the demand for regulatory data governance.

There Are Many Definitions Of Data Governance In Your Own Words How Would You Define Data Governance

I hate to use a definition within a definition, but its really about governing your data. Its making sure your data has checks and balances, from a security, process, and quality standpoint. If you boil it down even further, its making sure theres a structure surrounding your data, where you have the best people looking at the data to make sure that it is accurate, aligned, secure, and safe.

Read Also: Federal Government Jobs Las Vegas Nv

Effectively Implementing Data Governance Practices

As you might imagine, the first step for creating a strong data governance practice is working with relevant stakeholders to create standards and policies for data governing. The next step is drafting plans to implement and enforce those procedures. These procedures are as important as your underlying policies, as they plan a key role in ensuring that plans are effectively executed and policies are consistently implemented.

This process can feel overwhelming and can create some conflict throughout organizations, as owners of data assets often have different opinions of what data governance should look like. To help make this process as easy as possible:

• Get all stakeholders and data asset owners involved in the process from the beginning.
• Regularly conduct data governance training and education for all relevant teams, individuals and stakeholders.
• Ensure that there is ongoing communication about the development and implementation of your data governance systems and procedures. This can take the form of emails, newsletter, formal reports, status updates or meetings, but its important to have some type of consistent communication with all stakeholders.
• Make sure that you are working with clear, specific, and measurable goals.
• Start small and scale up as youre ready. Its tempting to tackle all objectives at once, but its more effective to focus on a few small goals and work to build up your systems from there.

What Does Data Governance Policy Cover

The Data Management Body of Knowledge framework is a commonly used model to describe data governance. This framework describes a hub-and-spoke structure of data management, with good governance as the hub at the center of everything.

The main spokes of the data management structure are:

• Data warehousing and business intelligence
• Metadata

Each of these spokes must be implemented in compliance with the governance framework.

Read Also: Good Jobs For History Majors

What Is A Data Governance Policy

A data governance strategy is a set of guidelines, which ensure that data assets are consistently managed and correctly used. These guidelines typically include individual policies regarding data quality, access, security, privacy, as well as roles and responsibilities for implementing these policies and monitoring compliance.

A data governance strategy should clarify the principles, practices, and standards that the organization deems necessary to have high quality data and protect data assets. This process is the responsibility of a group called the Data Governance Committee, which consists primarily of executives and data owners.

Policy documents developed by this team should clearly define the data governance structure that executives, managers and production line workers must follow in their day-to-day routines.

Here are some important basic data policies that any organization should establish.

Learn more in our detailed guide to data governance policies

Local Education Agency Representative

As they are the source of all data the state agency collects, schools and districts should actively participate in the data governance process to ensure that local perspective informs all decisions. For instance, district representatives will know whether a proposed change to a collection can reasonably be met, and may suggest alterations to facilitate district compliance. Local education agency staff can also offer information about district contracts, software, workload, and costs. They can help the state create solutions that will improve its communications and relationships with districts, and effectively decrease the local reporting burden. In addition, participating in the states data governance process will help increase the districts awareness of the importance of data quality and provide a model that could be implemented at the local level. At least one LEA representative should sit on the Data Governance Committee, but several would be preferable for a more rounded local perspective . Some states create an external group of districts and others, such as noneducation state agencies, specifically to review proposed changes to data collections. Some specific data governance responsibilities may include

• participating in the Data Governance Committee and
• participating in Data Steward Working Groups to resolve data issues that directly involve the relationship and communication between the state agency and districts.

You May Like: Congress Mortgage Stimulus For Middle Class

What Is Data Governance And Why Is It Important To Your Business

Im a fan of getting things done quickly. I walk fast, I talk fast, I drive fast.

But Ill freely admit that doing something fast isnt always the best way.

In fact, there are quite a few things out there that are best done carefully and methodically, if you want the best results.

Crossing the street, for example. Even though I walk quickly, I always stop to look both ways first. Given my high level of impatience, imagine how much faster I could get where Im going if I didnt have to check for cars every time.

But the fact of the matter isdanger is out there cars are on the road. And if one hits me, I wont get where Im going at all, no matter how fast I was walking.

The same applies to your business.

You could get so much more done if you didnt have to follow lots of rules and regulations on how you handle your data.

Employees could access data from anywhere. They could share client data between teams in whatever way got the job done fastest. Your tech team could focus on important projects without having to worry about backing up your data.

But danger lurks in the business world, too. Cyber criminals are out there. They want your data. And their techniques for acquiring it are getting more advanced and more harmful.

So how do you protect your business from the dangers of a world that grows more closely connected all the time?

Lay down ground rules for what your employees can and cant do with your companys data.

In other words, you step up your data governance game.

Why Do Businesses Need Data Governance

Even though most organizations do have volumes of data stored digitally or physically, most of the data is in a non-standardized format. Further, organizations cannot always be sure of the reliability of data due to age, the source, etc. Employees or business leaders often hesitate to rely on this data for decision-making due to worries about data quality. Data governance is a process that makes an organizations data reliable. It also makes sure that high-quality information is available across the organization. It empowers every department to make decisions based on this data. Data governance also drives the digital transformation of a business.

Don’t Miss: Dental Grants For Low Income

Benefit #4 Helps Comply With Data Protection Laws And Regulations

Last but not the least, the reason why most organizations start thinking about data governance – is to comply with data protection laws and regulations. Even a minor infringement of GDPR or CCPA regulations can cost an organization a fortune. Good data governance tools and processes ensure automated compliance with such regulations and laws. They create universal guidance to structured creation, storage, and deletion of data.

The benefits of data governance are endless if implemented well. With the rate at which data consumption and usage are exploding around us, organizations will benefit from having data governance at the heart of their data management principles and not as an afterthought or as a part of the checklist.

Who Is Included In Data Governance

As you might imagine, building a strong data governance team is a key part of this process and of ensuring that its an effective process. While all teams look a little different, some key positions to include on a data governance team are:

• A data manager, who is responsible for leading the design and implementation of policies and systems and for staffing the data governance team. In some organizations, this is the chief data officer, yet many opt to have a dedicated role for the manager of data governance.
• A data governance architect, who is responsible for oversight of designs and implementation.
• A data strategist, who creates and implements strategic plans.
• A compliance specialist, who ensures compliance with all regulatory standards.

In addition to the core governance team, stakeholders for data governance include the board of directors, finance executives, operations, marketing, sales, the CIO, and IT management. Involving all stakeholders in the process is an important part of the process and can lead to better outcomes.

Recommended Reading: Mortgage Stimulus Program Middle Class

Managers And Team Leads

Their role: Two-way communication between the DGC and the rest of a companys employees is a must. Enforcing new policies on a team level is also imperative.

Managers need to know how data governance policies relate to their teams, specifically. And they need to be able to communicate with the data governance council when certain policies make their teams jobs more difficult.

For example, say your DGC decided your employees can only access certain client information via your corporate VPN. Employees sign in to the VPN when they log in to their company computers. But your sales reps often work from home and use their own devices to close and update deals.

The sales manager and the data governance council need to work out a solution so that no client data is compromised, but the sales team can still do their jobs effectively.

How data governance affects them: Managers will likely be the first point of contact if a team member either requests a change in data policy or violates one. They need learn how to effectively communicate their teams needs regarding data in order to convey those needs to the DGC.

What Stage Of Data Governance Am I At

Identifying the stage of data governance your organization is at is a significant step to understand your business needs.

Measuring your organization up against a data governance maturity model can be a handy element in making the roadmap and communicating the as-is and to-be part of the data governance initiative and the context for deploying a data governance framework.

You can use this resource as a guide to understand exactly where your business is and how you can best incorporate a robust data governance strategy based on this.

Recommended Reading: Favr Car Allowance Calculator

Phase : Do The Groundwork For Data Governance

As a groundwork for data governance, its essential to start from the very basics by answering the following questions:

Why

An organization should first define the vision and mission of its data governance plan. An organization must also define the goals of the data governance programincreasing revenue, better decision-making, or transparency. Also, it should determine how to measure the success of the program. A clear vision helps employees and other stakeholders see how this data governance initiative is going to impact their day-to-day work life and how it is going to help them.

Who

Assigning roles and responsibilities is a crucial step. This step defines who will be primarily responsible for different tasks involved in the implementation of the data governance framework. Often, organizations adopt a three-tier approach to set up data governance teams. The steering committee, data governance office, and data governance working group are three main components in this approach. Together, these groups decide the next steps in the implementation of the data governance framework.

How

Benefits And Goals Of Data Governance

What does this mean for my business? What exactly are the benefits of implementing a robust data governance strategy?

With bad data, its impossible to make the right decisions at the right time. Collecting the data isnt enough by itself you need data governance to bring it all together.

This unlocks your business to use data more effectively. Here are some possible use cases for data governance.

• Consistently make confident decisions based on reliable and relevant data for the specific purpose and end-user within your business.
• Comply with data protection legislation and other regulatory requirements by documenting the permissions and usage of data from collection through to use.
• Built a robust data security system in which data ownership and responsibilities are clear for all involved.
• Utilize data to improve profits. This can be simply monetizing the data but can be used to drive revenue in other, less direct ways.
• Build a robust data distribution solution between internal and external data processors.
• Ensure that data is in the right format and as clean as possible before use, to save time performing these tasks at the point of use.
• Build a standardized data structure to ensure the same data is suitable for different tasks in different areas of your organization.

There are many more benefits to implementing a data governance strategy for your business.

Also Check: Free Touch Screen Government Phones Ohio

Why Data Governance Is Important For Businesses

Imagine that you are working on a multi-national project worth approximately $125 million. Now imagine that just as your project is going to touch down on Mars the project explodes. Obviously not a great outcome, but thats exactly what happened to the first Mars rover in 1999. The root cause of this catastrophic failure? One team used the imperial system instead of the metric system. The lack of a data governance plan lead to the failure of that project. NASA implemented a data governance standard, and now

That is a simple example of how data governance can help your organization be successful. Here are a few other advantages:

• Centralized policies and systems reduce IT costs related to data governance
• Data standards allow for better cross-functional decision making and communication
• Compliance audits are easier to manage, and compliance standards are easier to maintain

A data governance plan can also be a competitive advantage as you grow your business. Modern business runs on data, so without proper planning and business intelligence, you will fall behind your competitors.

• Data fuels business intelligence for short and long term planning, including mergers and acquisitions
• Data governance keeps data growth under control and organized
• Stable data makes adapting to new data and privacy legislation easier

Track And Manage Data Assets With The Help Of A Modern Data Catalog

A watertight data governance strategy cannot be implemented till you catalog all information you hold. So almost always step 1 is tracking, profiling, managing and auditing data assets with the help of a modern data catalog.

• Bring distributed data across databases, warehouses, etc., to one place.
• Enrich assets with metadata.
• Quickly locate frequently used data and people responsible for it.
• Auto-generate data quality profiles.

Recommended Reading: Dental Implant Grants

How To Bring Data Governance Framework To Your Business

So you have designed a framework, but how can you add this to your company?

There are tools that aim to take control of how data is used in your business. Some of these are extremely expensive and overly complicated.

We built a tool that aims to make data governance accessible Wult.

Wult takes control of your data tasks. But it does more than this. Wult brings built-in data governance solutions alongside these tasks.

So, for example, Wult doesnt just help you to find the data you need, clean it, and integrate it into your business workflows. It also adds a layer of data governance so that you can understand privacy requirements, create roles, and uses and ensure that your companies procedures are followed throughout the process.