Can you easily communicate what data governance is?

Data governance is a term that’s been around for years – close to decades at this point. Some people have never liked the term. They think “governance” sounds bureaucratic and want to avoid it. But, unless the term is universally abolished, you will be faced with it and you have to know how to deal with it. If you share your dislike of the term, the way you talk about it isn’t going to sell it to people.

At one point, I posed this question online, “Can you define data governance in one word?” While more words will obviously be needed to communicate the concept, using one word gives you a starting point and sets the stage for further discussion. I had my one word, but I wanted to see what other people said. I just asked for their one word. I didn’t ask if they were involved in data governance or for how long.

Some of the words weren’t surprising at all. Some were a little more troubling, perhaps indicating that some people had some bad experiences with data governance.

My word? “People.”

The reason I say data governance is all about the people is because you need the right people working on your data. They need to be working together and collaborating across the company. They need to be working for the best interests of the company, not their personal interests, or even the interests of the department they work in.

Three things act on data – people, processes, and technology. They’re also in that order for a reason. You need the right people following the right processes and using the right technologies acting on the data. It’s not a single individual or a single silo, but a group of people working cross-functionally because data is used cross-functionally.

Authority, oversight, control, enforcement, compliance?

Some of the words people suggested were authority, oversight, control, enforcement, and compliance. Those are definitely things we’re doing with data governance. We are building a group of people who have the authority to work together on oversight of the data with a level of control that enforces rules and makes sure we’re complying with regulations. But, some of those words are just as scary as governance, so be careful what you choose.

Accountability, alignment, trust, empowerment, awareness, agreeing?

Some of the words were a little softer than the ones in the previous paragraph – accountability, alignment, and trust. We want people involved in data governance who are accountable for their decisions, they’re aligned with people in other departments, and they’re working together to build trust in the data. If there’s no trust in the data, there won’t be trust in the decisions made with the data, or there shouldn’t be.

Some other words were empowerment and awareness. If people are part of data governance, they need to be empowered to make decisions with other people involved in data governance. We just need to make sure they don’t feel empowered to make decisions in a silo. People involved in data governance will also be building more of an awareness of how what they do impacts others, and hopefully sharing that awareness outside of the group they’re working with.

Another word was agreeing. One of the challenges with data governance is that we might not always agree on something, but we learn how data impacts others and may need to modify our thinking for the good of the company as a whole. We also have to be willing to say that while we might not have wanted to do something, we recognize that this is what the company needs and supports it. I’ve unfortunately seen some people who disagree with decisions and actively pursue sabotaging them.

Mandatory and essential. You really do need to think of data governance as mandatory and essential. It’s not a fluffy guideline you follow if you want to. Without data governance, you probably aren’t going to have the right level of trust in your data. But, do these words really tell you what data governance actually is?

Disaster?

Disaster. This was a really sad word. While I don’t know what was behind it, I have seen companies try to implement data governance where it wasn’t successful. This usually happened when the company didn’t have the right leader or the support from leadership that data governance was critical. People need to understand the value data governance brings, which is more than it showing up on an audit saying that the company needs it.

Some people used the names of particular tools on the market. While the tool can help, it comes third after people and process. Just the existence of a tool isn’t going to magically give you the right data that supports the business. You need the right people who know what goes into the tool and how to use it effectively. Also, most of the tools mentioned were less about data governance and more about other data management capabilities, such as data quality.

Final thoughts

While you don’t necessarily need one word to describe data governance, and you probably want more to describe what it is, having one word is something to think about. If you plan to have a long discussion with someone about why they need data governance, you need a good lead-in to that conversation.

Don’t lose your support right from the start by describing it in a way they don’t understand or that sounds scary to them. Done correctly, data governance is a huge benefit to a company and the right people make it successful.

About the Author:

Merrill Albert has the ultimate career of working in data. Starting with a BMath degree from the University of Waterloo, she has worked consistently with organizations across industries to help them better manage their data to derive value from it. Being exposed to a wide variety of organizations, Albert has been able to see the same problems happening time and again, often caused by people not recognizing the value data brings to an organization and what happens when the data is mismanaged.

Through education, coaching, and hands-on work, she has shared her knowledge with companies to help them better improve their data infrastructure and prevent future problems. Albert has worked in industry and at consulting companies, including building out a data management practice with all service offerings. She has published two books on data management and is currently working on her third.