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Data governance artifacts and tools 171

Whatever the technology, try and use a central entry point. This is where SharePoint or a Wiki are
beneficial. At its core, data governance is a program that sits on top of a defined set of rules and
workflows. (This is yet another reminder that DG is not special; it is just another business function with
the same operational requirements.)
In data governance, technology is a challenge in developing workflow and document management.
Taking out lists of elements and creating an internal taxonomy for DG is an ideal approach.
Workflows that you may want to wrap around your tools, or evaluate tools on, are core DG events.
Tracking all of the items in taxonomy is ideal. For example:

• Exemption requests
• Changes to standards
• DG issue resolution; unresolved items

These are all DG processes that can be adapted to workflow and document management.
A few other technology components that can help DG are chat forums, data control products, and
policy management tools.
Chat forums are useful as outlets for questions and advice while capturing crucial feedback on
feelings about DG. Data control products have been around for years and offer excellent facilities to
enter and observe the execution of rules. Policy management tools have also been around and offer
a set of tools for DG stakeholders.
Summary

The bottom line for DG technology is that you will be striving to assemble a set of technologies. Many
vendors, as of the writing of this book, are moving into the area of pure DG administration. Some are
entering from the IM realm, others from the document management realm. Regardless, you will need
to assemble a toolbox of capabilities. Create your own internal taxonomy (which can be woven into
a taxonomy tool) and connect the taxonomy via a single entry point to your other tools. Again,
traditional places to store artifacts, like SharePoint and Excel, are useful, but only if managed and,
welldduhdgoverned.