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Assess 45

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FIGURE 5-2
Various Views of Information Management Maturity.

meetings as to how to keep altering scope and the rollout strategy. The root issue was that no business
area wanted to be the first one to assume the new discipline required of the CMDM solution. In fact, it
did not take long to determine that not a single department was able to embark upon the required
changes without major upheaval. The corporate spirit was willing, but the corporate flesh was weak. It
took a major effort to prepare the organization for the required changes.
“Culture” is the favorite buzzword, as of this writing, when speaking in the context of the chal-
lenges of data governance. However, you cannot say, “Yep, let’s manage culture!” and expect to be
covered. All organizations have a different way or style of using data and information, even within the
same industry. Some may have achieved only mastery of basic reporting. Others may be managing
documents and using sophisticated data analysis. That is, they use data and information differently.
Since the ultimate goal of a data governance program is better data management resulting in better
information, we certainly need to understand where the organization is now. Figure 5-2 reproduces an
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overview of several types of information maturity scales.
It is more important to present some sort of scale than to try to determine which view of maturity is
“correct.”
“Collaboration” refers to the assessment of an organization to work cross-functionally or to work on
a task using teams made up of representatives pulled from various business segments. Granted, this can
be considered part of the culture. However, when collaboration enters the DG deployment picture, it is
a discipline that requires a thorough understanding of an organization’s ability to work collaboratively.

Considerations

Based on the three “Cs” described earlier, the assessment phase for DG deployment entails three types
of assessments. Whether you do all of them or only a portion depends heavily on the origins of your
DG effort. Figure 5-3 shows what you need to consider along with the three assessment types.
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For a detailed discussion on information management maturity, see Chapter 3 of Making EIM Work for Business, John
Ladley (Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufman, 2010).