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xiv Foreword

the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 and an ever-increasing number of data breaches to direct attention
back to data and the need to properly govern it.
While John and I (and others on the same conference circuit) had many enjoyable discussions about
this “new emerging field” of data governance, I have to confess that I really didn’t get why John was
also devoting his time to writing his previous book on EIM (enterprise information management).
After all, I said, the fields of data management and document/content management are pretty well
defined. Do we really need this new acronym? Do we need a new book on the topic?
As it turns out, we did. John brought to that book an important new perspective. This work was not
merely instruction for data geeks who loved their little slice of data heaven and were happy to learn
about other slices. No, his book also looked at this broad field from the perspective of someone who is
used to managing large and important resources for the betterment of an enterprise. This was
“Business meets Information Management,” with a lot of detail. Yes, it needed to be written. And I was
glad John did.
The visits to the Data Governance Institute’s website told the story of the ever-growing number of
people who were getting engaged in governance. And even though more and more of my consulting
time turned to helping organizations with strategies, I wanted to talk about data governance practices.
Selfishly, I was glad when John wasn’t working on his EIM book any more so we could have DG
discussions. In a world where governance has so many focus points, and so many different “flavors,”
I would ask him, what is universal? What is situational? What is need-to-have, and what is nice-to-have?
John is a man of action, so he often countered my topics with ones about specific activities and
action plans: the HOW of data governance.
In the past several years, much has been written about why organizations need data governance,
and who should do what, and how to sell the concept to those with the budget to fund projects and
programs. Much has also been written from tool vendors’ perspectives, and much has been written
from a motivational perspective. But not much has been written about the details of WHAT to do, and
WHEN, and HOW. The world needed a big detailed instruction manualdone that would be relevant in
many situations, for the many “flavors” of data governance.
I’m glad John Ladley has written it.

Gwen Thomas
Founder and President
The Data Governance Institute
www.datagovernance.com