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CHAPTER

Overview of a data governance

program

3

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped
but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
dMark Twain

DATA GOVERNANCE PROGRAM OVERVIEW

A data governance program really has one clear goaldto disappear. That may seem a bit enigmatic,
especially since this book is about making data governance real. Nevertheless, it is true. Remember,
you are deploying a new set of principles for treating a valuable asset in a much-improved manner. At
the end of the day, the true mark of success is the organization treating its information as it treats its
factories, supply chains, vendors, and customers. In the twenty-first century, no manager argues with
standards for material handling, depreciation rules, or customer privacy. These are accepted business
practices. There is no debate over whether you should have standards or controls. Yet it is easy to
spread data all over an organization to the point that (a) it is excessively expensive to manage, and
(b) you cannot find it, make sense of it, or agree on its meaning.
Ensuring a good understanding of how a data governance program looks and works is essential to
getting participants engaged. Every time we kick off a new governance council or team to design a DG
program, we always hear one person say, “I don’t get the big picture. What does this look like?” The
concept of assimilating data governance into everyday corporate life adds additional challenge, since
you are not only defining and implementing a discrete program; you are also attempting to alter
behavior to a point that the long-term program is visible only through verification and adjustment.
Regardless if data governance is new, or has become endemic and institutionalized, there is
a collection of elements that characterize and describe a data governance program. Understanding how
these work together aids in understanding the “big picture.” This chapter reviews the scope and content
of these elements and their interaction.

THE SCOPE OF DATA GOVERNANCE

We already mentioned that data governance (DG) is an enterprise concept. There needs to be an
acknowledgment that the organization will adopt a mindset requiring greater rigor as far as handling its
data and information. However, declaring the scope of data governance is a bit more complicated than
saying, “We are governing everything!” It means considering some key factors affecting scope, and
Data Governance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-415829-0.00003-4 21
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