The topic of Data Governance can be abstract and difficult to define, furthermore, it often fails because of a lack of business focus.

Don’t let these challenges keep you from managing your extremely valuable data assets. Data Governance, done properly, establishes a foundation for defining, managing, changing, and integrating the Data in your organization. It enables the processes that will care for your Data and outlines the organizational decisions which impact Data’s meaning and value.

In this series of posts, we’ll outline the steps in building a framework to give concrete meaning to Data Governance in real business terms.

Your starting point is to create a Data Governance Framework which defines the essential scope and supporting processes. The goal is to align business needs with the governing functions, ensuring that the most important and most necessary pieces are established first. Move one step at a time and do not try to tackle the entire framework at once (it’s too daunting).

Before you can obtain the support of your executive management team, you first must identify critical business data needs and then pick the one most relevant to your business. If you are unsure where to start, try in sales or financials. Find the data elements are most controversial, most used, most confidential, or most regulated. Use these examples to build your business case and your sales pitch to gain executive leadership support for the concept.

Assuming you have support for the initiative, establish your Data Governance Organization. This is the authoritative body when it comes to Data decisions. Most importantly, it can be virtual and does not require additional staff (avoiding additional costs will be key to your success). This organization is responsible for the guidance, planning, and stewardship of your Governance initiative and we will define these responsibilities in more detail in the next post.

Let the framework serve as your roadmap to creating and launching a successful and business focused Data Governance program.