9 data governance strategies that will unlock the potential of your business data

Everything is data-digital messages, emails, customer information, contracts, presentations, sensor data-virtually anything humans interact with can be converted into data, analyzed for insights or transformed into a product. The best way to build a strong foundation for data success is through effective data governance.

Access to high-quality data can help organizations start successful products, defend against digital attacks, understand failures and pivot toward success. Emerging technologies and trends, such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), automation and generative AI (gen AI), all rely on good data quality. To maximize the value of their AI initiatives, organizations must maintain data integrity throughout its lifecycle.

Every organization aims for up-to-date information, real-time market awareness, and insights to achieve optimal business results. Managing this level of oversight requires adept handling of large volumes of data.

How data governance prevents errors and strengthens data integrity

Imagine data management as an airport with planes constantly arriving and departing. Data governance is the air traffic control hub, helping to ensure that verified, secure data flows through safe pipelines to trusted endpoints. Just as aircraft, crew and passengers are scrutinized, data governance maintains data integrity and prevents misuse or mishandling.

Effective data governance is a complex process that requires long-term investment for many organizations. It's not a quick fix, and poorly integrated governance programs can erode trust in the process, potentially leading to business decisions based on incorrect assumptions or breaches of sensitive data.

Without an engaged data culture and strong data governance principles, inconsistent data can go unnoticed, causing serious damage. For instance, in 2017, Uber paid at least USD 45 million in repayments to drivers (link resides outside of IBM.com) due to a data miscalculation that inflated its commission percentage.

Centralizing policies and data standards, while investing in education and infrastructure, creates a single, dynamic source of truth for all organizational layers. New data growth is controlled, data is accessible and organized, management has oversight of assets and their value, marketing understands the customers, supply chains are optimized, and audits and compliance standards becomes more manageable.

High-quality data governance initiatives can absorb a significant portion of an IT budget, depending on the organization's size and data environment. However, the benefits often justify the expense, especially for heavily regulated sectors. Organizations should tailor their data governance initiatives to fit their needs, with a clear roadmap to success.

Data governance best practices

Treating data as a strategic resource has become a priority as organizations and their data estates grow and evolve. Data governance identifies strategically valuable data and protects it with stewardship, policies and procedures, helping to ensure that it remains useful, accessible and compliant across all departments.

1. Start small, think big

Implementing a data governance framework can be a significant undertaking that demands focus, time and cross-departmental collaboration. Start small by setting measurable goals and assigning ownership of data domains. This involves educating stakeholders and mapping infrastructure, architecture and tools. Establishing standardized definitions and control measures builds a solid foundation that evolves as the framework matures.

2. Define roles and responsibilities

A successful data governance framework requires clearly defined roles and responsibilities. A steering committee, often comprising C-level management or vice presidents (VPs), sets the overall governance strategy and champions data stewards, holding the organization accountable to timelines and outcomes. Data owners manage data domains, help to ensure quality, address data-related issues, and approve data definitions, promoting consistency across the enterprise.

3. Build a business case and secure buy-in

A compelling business case is essential before the program is implemented, outlining the benefits of a data governance framework. Conduct a delta analysis to assess the current data state versus the wanted future state. Identify specific use cases for data governance that demonstrate value and relevance to stakeholders. This analysis creates a roadmap of specific actions, resources and timelines. Securing stakeholder buy-in is crucial for allocating necessary budgets and personnel.

4. Thoughtfully implement the framework

With a clear understanding of the data landscape, focus on implementing data governance by defining the program's purpose-whether enhancing data quality, compliance or data-driven decision-making-and create a formal structure of roles and responsibilities. The steering committee or governance council can establish data governance policies around privacy, retention, access and security while defining data management standards to streamline processes and certify consistency and compliance as new data is introduced.

5. Choose the right technology and tools

Select tools that support data cataloging, lineage tracking, metadata management and data quality monitoring, helping to ensure integration with the organization's existing data management infrastructure for a seamless transition. Tools that handle various data formats and offer visualization capabilities enhance the understanding of complex data sets and relationships, making it easier to identify trends, outliers and areas that require attention. Automation can significantly improve efficiency and reduce errors.

6. Be safe

Strong data security is a fundamental best practice for any data governance framework. Data security goes beyond protecting data privacy from unauthorized access; it involves creating a strategy that includes encryption, access controls, regular audits and continuous monitoring. Effective risk management practices identify, assess and mitigate potential threats before they can cause harm. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments help this process.

Also, staying compliant with privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), requires that data protection policies are enforced and regularly updated to adapt to new threats and regulatory changes.

7. Continually monitor and improve

Data governance is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process requiring continuous monitoring and improvement. Establish regular assessment and reporting mechanisms to keep stakeholders informed of governance metrics, issues and improvements. A dashboard can help visualize key metrics and provide stakeholders with a real-time overview of the governance framework's effectiveness.

Regularly reviewing the framework and adjusting it based on feedback, new regulations or changes in business strategy fosters a culture that values data as a strategic asset, supporting effective business intelligence and data use across the organization.

8. Integrate governance with business strategy

Data governance should be tightly aligned with broader IT policies and business strategies. Governance efforts must be flexible to meet team needs and simple enough for users to adopt. Embedding collaboration into daily workflows helps to ensure that data governance is integrated with business operations, avoiding frustration and tool fatigue. This approach helps create a cohesive data governance ecosystem that protects data and drives successful outcomes aligned with organizational goals.

9. Use maturity models

Use a maturity model to measure progress and provide a clear roadmap for success. A data governance maturity model is a tool that helps organizations assess the current state of their data governance program, set goals and track progress over time. As organizations advance through phases-from being unaware to becoming managed and effective-data governance becomes a fundamental part of the organization's culture and operational practices.

Where most organizations go wrong

Put succinctly: lack of data leadership. Data teams need direction, policies must be developed and enforced, and communication with leaders across the organization is essential. Without effective data governance, data can become siloed and segmented, increasing the risk of inaccuracies and mishandling. Good data governance depends on investing in education, infrastructure and resources. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Data governance goes beyond the next product development cycle; it's an evolving process that must keep pace with emerging technologies and requirements. When data policies hinder workflow, teams might bypass them, creating workarounds that introduce risk, create silos and segment data.

Organizations struggle with implementing an effective data governance framework because they often fail to assess and understand the data they manage. This oversight can lead to serious consequences, resulting in regulatory fines, penalties and a loss of customer trust. Impact and privacy assessments are critical tools for evaluating the effectiveness of a data governance process or framework.

Avoiding data governance pitfalls requires investing in the right tools, knowledge and training to implement policies effectively. Many organizations underestimate the scale and complexity of a data governance initiative. Successful data governance requires company-wide engagement, making it a significant and ongoing project that demands time, focus and cross-departmental collaboration.

This large-scale effort can sometimes divert attention and resources from other business initiatives, causing team friction and resistance. As technology and organizations evolve, so must their data governance frameworks. Regular assessments and updates are necessary to help ensure alignment between technology, people and organizational goals.

Efforts must be flexible enough to adapt to data governance team needs and simple enough for effective user onboarding. Although the tools involved in data governance can be complex, they must integrate seamlessly with the organization's overall data strategy to enhance rather than hinder operations.

Data governance is not a stand-alone initiative; it must align with the organization's broader IT strategy to secure consistency and effectiveness. Without this coordination, gaps in policy enforcement and inconsistencies in data management can arise across the organization.

Core principles of data governance

Integrity and accountability

Responsibilities for various aspects of data management must be clearly defined. Everyone in the organization should know their role in maintaining data integrity and understand their level of accountability. High standards for data accuracy result in accurate and trustworthy data. Clearly defined ethics policies govern which data is private, what is public, and how data should be used. Learn more about the challenges organizations face as they determine the appropriate level of governance.

Transparency

All participants must understand how data-related decisions are made and how data controls work. Policies, procedures and standards must be communicated, and stakeholders should have access to resources and documentation. They should also have access to relevant information about how data is collected, stored and used.

Compliance

All processes must be auditable. Processes that enable auditing and tracking of data and its activities simplify regulatory compliance and build trust within the organization.

Data stewardship

Data stewardship plays a crucial role in maintaining data quality and governance across an organization. Assigning data stewards to specific data domains helps to ensure that data is managed consistently and aligns with governance policies. Data stewards oversee daily data management, collaborate with stakeholders to resolve issues, and help to ensure data accuracy and compliance throughout its lifecycle.

Quality management

Implement checks and balances between business and technology teams, and among those who collect, manage, use and set standards for data. These checks involve cross-functional review committees, dual approval processes, regular audits and role-based access controls.

Agility and flexibility

Eliminate silos and support enterprise data standardization to improve decision-making and accessibility across the organization. Controlled access fosters a culture of collaboration and shared data responsibility. As new technologies emerge, organizations must adapt to avoid being left behind.

Proactive change management

Proactive change management involves the strategies organizations use to manage changes in reference data, master data and metadata. This approach helps minimize disruptions and keeps data aligned with business needs. Reactive strategies, on the other hand, enable organizations to address unexpected changes or issues quickly.

Value realization

Good data governance aims to maximize the value of data as a strategic asset, enhancing decision-making, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence projects. An organization's data governance framework should support the strategic direction of the organization's overall business goals and objectives.

Data governance tools

Effective data governance tools should be searchable, customizable and include features such as a business glossary, granular role-based access controls, automation capabilities, cross-system data lineage and data quality assessment tools. These tools help organizations effectively manage their data sets, so they remain accessible and consistent. Using the correct tools will make a difference in implementing effective data governance. Common tools include:

Data catalogs

These tools create an inventory of data assets by cataloging and indexing all data sources across the enterprise. Data catalogs provide a centralized repository where users can discover, understand and access data. They often include features such as metadata management, data lineage and a business glossary.

Master data management (MDM)

MDM tools keep an organization's master data-such as customer, product or supplier information-consistent and up-to-date across systems and departments, preventing data silos and providing a unified view of critical data entities.

Data quality tools

Data quality tools assess, improve and maintain data quality within an organization. They help data stewards identify and correct issues such as duplication, inconsistency and inaccuracies, helping to ensure data reliability.

Data lineage tools

Data lineage tools track data flow through various enterprise systems and processes, providing a detailed map of its origins, transformations and destinations. Lineage tools help understand the data lifecycle and help to ensure traceability.

Policy management

Governance policies such as data access rules, retention and privacy guidelines need to be developed and tracked. Policy management provides a central repository where all policies can be accessed and maintained.

Metadata management tools

Metadata management tools manage data about data, such as definitions, data models and relationships. These tools make metadata accessible, helping users understand and use data more effectively.

Threat detection

These tools help protect an organization's data, systems and networks from cyberthreats. Malware, ransomware, phishing attacks, insider threats and other forms of unauthorized access or data breaches can have a significant impact on a business. Continuous monitoring helps governance teams detect threats in real time, safeguarding data integrity.

Comprehensive platforms

Comprehensive data governance platforms offer end-to-end solutions, combining elements of data cataloging, metadata management, data quality and policy enforcement into a unified toolset. These platforms provide a holistic approach to managing data across the organization.

Automation in data governance

A key to implementing a successful, long-running data governance process is to automate wherever possible. These systems have many moving parts, and there are numerous areas where corruption or mishandling can occur. Automation streamlines difficult-to-scale and error-prone manual processes, replacing them with reproducible, sustainable automated workflows.

There are different levels of automation an enterprise can apply at various points in the data lifecycle to enforce good governance, including:

• Column-level access control: Enforces access via users, groups and teams with high levels of granularity.
• Auto-constructed data lineage: Helps visualize the flow of data through systems without the need for complex hand-coded solutions.
• Auto-propagation of policies: Automatically assigns metadata tags to specific data elements (such as columns or tables) to identify them as sensitive, helping to ensure that derived data elements inherit the same protection. For example, a bank customer's documents might have sensitive information, such as account numbers, hidden.
• Auto-generated audit logs: Record data interactions to understand how employees use data.
• Automated classification: Classifies data based on predefined categories, such as personal identifiable information (PII), financial data, intellectual property or confidential information.

DevOps and DataOps are practices that emphasize developing a collaborative culture. DevOps between operations and development teams, and DataOps between data teams and operations. Both use automation, including continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery/deployment (CD).

DataOps reduces friction and promotes collaboration between data management teams, engineers, data scientists and operations teams. DevOps provides a framework for developing and deploying software products through enhanced collaboration between development and operations teams. Both practices enable organizations to develop and deploy their respective products-data or software-using agile methodology, automation and governance.

Important data governance roles

The roles in data governance help to ensure that data is effectively shared, protected and verified to benefit everyone involved. These roles create a system where data is managed, maintained and used in alignment with the organization's strategic goals.

Steering committee

The steering committee leads the data governance strategy, setting the overall direction to help ensure that the governance framework produces specific, measurable outcomes. This committee often includes high-level executives, such as C-level management or VPs, who oversee various business lines. Their role involves advocating for data stewards and holding the organization accountable to timelines and wanted outcomes. By enforcing accountability, the steering committee prioritizes data governance and allocates resources to support governance initiatives.

Data owners

Data owners oversee the governance of information within specific data domains across the organization. These individuals are responsible for maintaining data accuracy, quality and consistency across systems and business lines. Data owners also approve glossaries and other critical definitions, standardizing terminology and data usage across the enterprise. They collaborate with stakeholders to address data-related issues, offering valuable input on solutions, policies and regulatory requirements. Their oversight helps to ensure that the standards within their domain align with the organization's strategic objectives.

Data stewards

Data stewards manage data within specific domains. They work closely with others to address data issues and actively participate in governance processes by proposing, discussing and voting on data policies and committee activities. By positioning data stewards at each stage of the data lifecycle, organizations can more effectively enforce governance processes across different departments. This role acts as a checkpoint to identify potential violations and take corrective actions, maintaining data integrity and compliance across the enterprise.

Implementing a successful data governance program is often challenging, with obstacles such as securing stakeholder buy-in, addressing resistance to change, and maintaining data quality. However, organizations can overcome these challenges by adopting a strategic approach, adhering to best practices and remaining persistent.

Investing in the right tools and technology can significantly simplify this process. IBM Cloud Pak® for Data offers a robust, secure foundation for enterprise data governance with its comprehensive suite of tools. It can automatically discover and classify data, identify sensitive information, enforce protection rules and accelerate data-driven outcomes. Also, it addresses privacy and compliance requirements, helping to ensure that data governance aligns seamlessly with the enterprise's broader objectives.

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