Page 62 -

CHAPTER

Process overview for deploying

data governance

5

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up somewhere else.
dYogi Berra

By “stand up,” we mean define, design, deploy, and start to manage the DG program. This does not
mean there is no process to get actual approval to proceed with a DG program. Many organizations
struggle with the desire to carry out DG, but do not have the commitment from management to do so.
However, DG is not a program to do as a stand-alone effort. After all, you need to govern something.
Our process covers the business case and “selling” DG, but in the context of an organization that
acknowledges something needs to be different. We also assume that the process will find a visible
benefit to DG. In other words, we are showing the entire process and will not delve into a separate
1
chapter on the debate of selling DG, or if DG has value. If you have read this far, you know that.
This chapter will present an overview of the entire process to “stand up” data governance. The
following eight chapters will present each step along with some sample artifacts and relate the steps to
our case studies.
If you are considering DG, it means you have acknowledged a problem manifested through lack of
governance. Therefore, one path to standing up DG is from the application of a solution to a problem.
However, you need to keep the following in mind all of the time: DG is a component of an overall
enterprise information management (EIM) program. As covered in Chapter 2, DG is applied when
various types of EIM solutions are developed, such as business intelligence or master data manage-
ment (MDM). Even if you are only doing an MDM solution and have no formal EIM program, in effect
you are implementing one component of EIM. Since MDM and DG must go hand in hand, your MDM
project lays a foundation for expansion of EIM through the DG and MDM efforts.

HELPFUL HINT
We always emphasize that the “E” stands for enterprise when we talk about EIM programs. This is in reaction to the
tendency of upper management to say, “First show me it works on a small scale.” The same goes for DG. “Govern
a little bit” is often heard during the initial days of a DG program. You need to be very careful that the

1
We thought very seriously about inserting a chapter to talk about the justification of DG as a concept. We decided not to.
Frankly, if an organization has to debate if DG is “required,” or it has to test the legitimacy of the concept, it does not
understand what DG is. We have dealt with too many companies where an executive has told the nascent DG team to “do
a proof of concept.” When we hear that, we embark upon education, not selling. “Proving governance” is akin to asking the
accounting area to rejustify double-entry bookkeeping. Governance is a required function that most organizations embrace
comfortably. Anyone asking for a proof of concept either does not get it or is erecting barriers.
Data Governance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-415829-0.00005-8 41
Copyright Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.