Another idea often bounced around at conferences is that only a short period of time is needed to make the guidelines and exercises that these data governance rules control. On the other hand, the process of understanding the choices, arriving at an agreement, assisting in decision-making, agreeing on deliverables, confirming areas or responsibility, etc etc etc can taken an excruciatingly long period of time.  While I agree with the sentiment that the basic tenants of Data Governance can be agreed upon quickly…. As they say, “the devil is in the details” and these don’t tend to work themselves out very quickly. 

The success of any program on Data Governance relies on the utmost capacity of a Data Governance worker to effectively work with and coordinate with Data Stakeholders and Data Stewards. How can these Data Governance workers do this task effectively? First, they have to create a very effective Communication Plans. They have to construct fail-proof mediums of communications like Elevator Speeches, Impact Statements, Presentations, Governance Status Reports, emails to and from the Stakeholders and many more. Without these plans, there is no way that a Data Governance worker can fulfill his/her duties very well.

- Have a straightforward vision, theirs is: “Elevate Data to Enterprise Intelligence”. His goal was to be the brain of the organization through data quality.

- Achieve Data Governance through the creation and storage of the critical business rules (1) Define business rules (2) Provide global visibility of data quality to whole organization at all levels

- Data Governance exists in every organization (creating rules, defining rules, etc…) whether they know it or not. What many do not have is a formalized process – what we really think of when we think data gov


- Logo is important – when people see it on documents they automatically know its from his team. I wrote an article a while back that talked about the importance of branding your data governance program.

- Develop value drivers that are important to your organization, not “BS”. It doesn’t have to be what you read in magazines, books, or hear at presentations, it should be what matters to your organization. Ideas: Improve time to market, Have better decision making…

- Use the vocab your organization understands. At Nestle, the CEO and management signed a document six years ago that they would do Data Ownership. The industry now prefers data stewardship (because of data my-ning). He decided to stick with ownership because that is what works in his organization.

- Tools are helpful. You can achieve big things with small (or no) tools, but they really do help

- Put your metrics in positive terms. For example, say “80% of a data field is correct” rather than “20% of a field is incorrect”.

- He didn’t create the data governance/quality organization, he just formalized what already existed

- Proposed adding a Q in ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load). At Nestle it is ETQL – Extract, Transfer, Quality Check, Load

Governance Portal
This is a pretty good article in DMReview about the beginning stages of data governance. It states that, “data quality is the first step towards a proactive data governance initiative”. Its a very timely post, as I’m headed to the Information and Data Quality conference next week, and it gives a nice perspective to judge the various venders that will certainly be presenting their wares.

What’s exciting about LogLogic?
This short article from Philip Howard reviews LogLogic, a product that enables you to bring all of your log data into a single place for analysis. Phillip acknowledges that logs are a snoozefest, but what LogLogic does certainly seems valuable. He touches on data governance at the end, mentioning that the output of LogLogic analysis will help in the data governance program.

The Impact of Data Governance on M&A
Phillip really cranked out the articles for IT-Director this week… In this writeup he makes the case that if a company wants to be acquired, “then it would be a good idea to have good data governance in place.” Likewise, if you are looking to aqcuire companies, it would be very wise of you to look for companies that have good data governance in place. This is really an interesting read…

If you haven’t yet subscribed to this blog, take a second and do so by entering your email address in the box below. I’m going to pick up some goodies at the conference and give them away to email subscribers! If you’ve already subscribed you’ll automatically be entered.

Data Governance and the Holy Grail
This is a nice article on how Data Governance is helping the business better connect with IT, and vise-versa. The ‘holy grail’ in this case is the idea that the business and IT and working so closely together that the business needs are always met by the IT solutions. Last I checked we hadn’t found the holy grail, but Data Governance has certainly helped build a better bridge between the two groups.

Data Governance Training Webinar
Take advantage of this one because its free… Just click on that link, then click “Award-Winning UMB Bank Success Secret: High Quality Customer Data” at the top. I listened to it again the other day and I am really impressed by what UMB was able to do in just a short amount of time. There are lots of great tips and advice that you can apply to your organization today.

The Importance of Being Encrypted
This article is focused on encryption, but mentions in the last paragraph the importance of a Data Governance plan. In my experience, Compliance has always been responsible for the data security policy (in conjunction with the Data Management team) but this article seems to state that it should be the responsibility of the Data Governance council. I tend to disagree, but its good to know what thoughts are out there.

DataFlux Event
If you are interested in an upcoming DataFlux event, you’ll want to check out this link. Its only about 2 weeks away, but if you are close to Orlando, FL you should definitely consider heading over there.


Data Governance Opinion article at ComputerWorld
This article deals with storage and compliance issues, the current state of data management, and what a long term solution might be.

Presenting gives you a couple of benefits both within and outside of your organization. In your organization it gives both you and your program credibility you can’t buy. It shows you are respected by your peers and it gives your sponsors some confidence that they selected the right person for the initiative. Let your council as well as others know that you’ll be out of town to “present on the success our organization has had with Data Governance at the abc conference”.


At the conference you’ll make great contacts and hear a bunch of really good presentations on Data Governance theory and practice. I’ve always had great takeaways from these conferences in the past that have really made them worth the price of admission.

You can present on any number of topics. Here are a few broad ideas to get you thinking:

• How you built your program from the ground up
• Your Data Governance communication plan
• What worked and what didn’t
• How not to do Data Governance – What we did wrong, and what we’d do next time
• A really neat item that worked for you
• Data Governance resources – what you read and looked to for advice

Here are a few ‘mashups’ that would make for very compelling presentations:

• Project Management and Data Governance
• SOA and Data Governance
• Case study: Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance and Data Governance

My Disclaimer: People have asked me why I don’t present… My answer is that my organization is pretty old-fashioned and rigid about outside presentations. Rather than bother with the red tape, I started this blog (note I don’t give my full name or my organization to maintain a sort of anonymity) to give my view of Data Governance.