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36 CHAPTER 4 The data governance business case

Never say “better decisions” or “better data quality” as business vision statements. These are not
business statements. They have no relevance from a vision standpoint because they are not meas-
ureable in terms of business value, and they improperly position expectations. An example of
a properly worded business vision for DG might look like this: “ACME Inc. will manage its infor-
mation assets to increase shareholder value and reduce enterprise risk?”

Program Risks

A business case is also a vehicle to present how a venture will manage risk. While part of the business
case for DG will address enterprise risks, you also need to consider risks that the DG program itself
may create:
1. Business RisksdThe DG program fails to do its part to prevent loss of market share and reputation,
and fails to hit targets or avoid fraud.
2. Regulatory RisksdDG fails to connect with compliance requirements and there are violations of
regulations.
3. Cultural RisksdThe organization fails to engage in the DG process and continues poor data asset
management practices that resulted in the need for DG in the first place.

Business Alignment

If the DG program is going to be supporting (directly or indirectly) business initiatives, call out the
value points or specific scenarios DG will enable. Your actual business case benefits will come out of
these areas, so do not be timid in looking around for opportunity.

Costs of Data Quality

Data quality issues consume an enormous amount of cost and resources. It is the primary manifestation
and metric of a functional DG program. Therefore, it is important that your business case mention the
current costs and risks associated with data quality.

Costs of Missed Opportunities

There is always the need to highlight what will happen, or continue to happen, without DG. You may
cover some of this in the data quality area, but it is good to recap existing issues with data, reporting,
poor content management, scary compliance issues, or the high cost of ownership due to extensive
redundancy. There may be business actions and scenarios, however, that cannot happen or may be
more difficult without DG.

Obstacles, Impacts, and Changes

It is fair to cover possible cultural and other organizational issues. If there is the possibility of tech-
nology changes, these can be mentioned (you do not need details, those come later). Any obstacles that
are known need to be presented.