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Contents of the Business Case 35

• Historical criticism of information technology area (IT)
• Ongoing complaints that the IT data is not “correct”dso business areas need to create “correct”
data
• A growth of “stealth” or shadow IT in reaction to a poor perception of IT
• Lists of projects that “we will get running with these shortcomings and then fix them later.” Of
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course, later never happens.
The business case for DG must address these opinions head-on. To recap, the DG business case needs
to accomplish the following:
• Identify where it can support business directly (such as risk avoidance).
• Identify where information is used to move the business forward.
• Associate DG with those IM activities (MDM, BI, etc.).
• Address historical shortcomings of IT projects.
Accomplishing these objectives will provide a multidimensional business case that will make DG
a sustainable program.
If detailed, specific business benefits cannot be quantified easily, you can use industry standards,
benchmarks, and papers to provide the metrics for the business case.

CONTENTS OF THE BUSINESS CASE

Several basic components are required to build a business case for data governance. Because DG is
a component of EIM, there are similarities in the two business cases. More details on EIM business
cases can be found in Making EIM Work for Business (John Ladley. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kauf-
mann, 2010). The basic contents are slightly modified for a specific DG case.

Vision

Vision is perhaps the most abused term in business, but the “big picture” is incredibly important for the
acceptance of DG. Remember that you will be telling a large part of the organization to change.
Change does not happen among humans without some view of the big picture. In fact, it is rather rude
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to ask people to change without some sort of explanation. This is your goal for the vision. What will
a day in the life look like when DG is in place? What will you see in the organization? What business
goals will be more achievable?
One of the big surprises in rolling out DG occurs when the business areas start to comprehend that
there will be new accountability for data. Very often an oxymoron will appear. The same business
units that insist on their own IT staff and maintain scores of legacy spread sheets and Access
databases will also say, “Data accountability is not my issue. Data belongs to IT. Except my data,
that is.”

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John Ladley, Making EIM Work for Business (Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2010).
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While raising children, a parent will take great pains to never say, “Because I said so!” as a justification for asking for
a behavior change. In the context of DG, the temptation to say this with difficult cultures or clients will be much stronger.