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168 CHAPTER 14 Data governance artifacts and tools
What Should Be Tracked?
There is a hierarchy, or taxonomy, of business elements and artifacts that DG will need to consider,
track, create, or administer. There are also elements that DG will specify regarding tracking and use. In
other words, both sides of the “V” have documents, policies, standards, and such that will require
administration.
Business Elements
The categories of business elements to be tracked are:
Business alignmentdThe business alignment elements are made up of documents and files that
express business direction, performance, and measurement. These elements must be monitored by DG
because they are the direct component of business alignment. As we have said often, ensuring business
alignment to IAM is a crucial activity for DG. These include:
• Strategy
• Goal
• Objective
• Plan
• Information levers
Business processdProcess elements are everything that has to do with events and actions that do
something with data. If you have a process modeling tool, for example, the artifacts from this tool
would be addressed in this area. From a DG standpoint, process elements must be reviewed to ensure
the controls are documented, as well as the key regulatory or compliance processes. Other processes,
like events or communications, may require DG when the content for an external communication
needs to be reviewed.
• Event
• Meeting
• Communication
• Training
• Process
• Workflow
• Life cycle
• Methodology
• Function
PolicydPolicy elements have to do with artifacts that codify or document desired or required behavior.
Obviously, DG will need access to these and, better yet, track them. A prime example is governance of
documents, where there are legal, risk-based, and practical policies, which are often in conflict with
each other. For example, everyone wants to keep those memos “just in case,” while corporate counsel
says to get rid of them as soon as possible. We include Principles in this category because policies stem
from principles.
• Principles
• Policies

