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CHAPTER

Final remarks

15

The final words of this book will, and should, be a summary on the deployment of data governance.
But before we recap the preceding chapters, it’s important to reinforce that implementing more
discipline in regard to data, information, or content is not really an option.
As this book was being finished, the author started another information management–related
project for a new clientdwith one of the requested deliverables being “data governance.” It was asked
for in a shopping list given to the consulting team by the CIO, who was soliciting the consulting firms.
To be precise, the request was to “deliver recommendations on ETL, MDM, BI, and data governance.”
The blast of acronyms was our first warning sign.
Since we were very familiar with their industry, and given that data governance was mentioned, we
prepared our approach based on an assessment of the current maturity and business alignment. It was
obvious from the beginning that this was going to be a hard project. To make a long story short, this
effort, as of this writing, is fraught with risk. The CIO basically said, “I know the answer, you just need
to give me a list of vendors.” When we mentioned that data governance didn’t fall into that type of
recommendation, we were told to just make recommendations if data governance was “necessary” and
to propose some standards.
The friction between this company’s business and IT area goes back decades. The CIO absolutely
feels he knows what the answer is, and wants a rubber-stamped report. The designated sponsor can’t
stand IT or consultants and says we should spend the few weeks of the assessment “doing reports they
need.” Do you think data governance would be front-of-mind in this scenario?
But the reason this company is in the mess it is in (and it is a huge mess, with many details being
left out of this narrative) is simply because it has had no discipline or governance. The very thing it is
deemphasizing is the reason they need expensive outside help to fix things. There is a lot of education
to be done.
They do not understand that data governance is not part of a list of features. It is the underpinnings
of all of the possible solutions to use data better. So let’s revisit some of the critical items presented in
this book.

CONCEPTS

Information asset management (IAM)dWe spent some time to make sure the reader understands that
“information as an asset” is not just a metaphor or brand for the information management program. It
means applying the same serious rigor that is applied to other “hard” assets. If you say you need data
governance, you are acknowledging belief in IAM. This gives you the right mindset.
The relationship of data governance to information managementdWe introduced the concept of
the “V” in this book. Data governance (DG) is the oversight and standardization component of

Data Governance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-415829-0.00015-0 173
Copyright Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.