Page 90 -

CHAPTER

Assess

7

Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn’t believing. It’s where belief stops, because it isn’t
needed any more.
dTerry Pratchett

The “Assess” step gathers data about the organization’s ability to do governance, and to be governed.
These assessments can overlap greatly with other assessments done in conjunction with data quality,
MDM, BI, or other EIM solutions. They can also be derived as subsets of overall EIM assessments.
They identify the “perceptions and means an organization deploys to use data, and how the organi-
zation is positioned to carry out its day-to-day work while adopting the philosophy of IAM. The
current state of an organization’s information abilities, maturity, and content effectiveness are
1
examined.”
While we can get what we need from other assessments that are often happening around DG, this
chapter focuses on them solely from a DG perspective. However, since there is overlap, a great deal of
this chapter is similar in tone and content to Chapter 19 of Making EIM Work for Business (Morgan
Kaufman, 2010). To see more assessment examples, as well as these assessments in a larger context,
please refer to that work.
In the context of the DG assessments, the bottom line is that you need to understand if the
organization can truly manage information as an asset. Information asset management (IAM)
creates the philosophical basis for data governance. Therefore, the philosophy must be
accepted currently or you need to start identifying the gaps that are preventing IAM from being
adapted.
2
Assessments are more than just lists of questions that are asked in a stream of interviews.
They need to present an accurate, verifiable account of the current statedandtheyneed todo it
in a timely fashion. Interviews can certainly accomplish this but are rarely timely. Therefore,
the assessment for DG tends to be better accomplished via survey or other data-gathering
techniques.

1
John Ladley, Making EIM work for Business (Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufman, 2010).
2
The author developed a mild and short-lived reputation as a radical from a presentation entitled “Interviews Are Dumb.” It
got people’s attention. Consultants got panicky since the default starting position for anything seemingly MUST be an
interview (it is not). Business personnel in the audience went “PHEW.thanks!”
Data Governance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-415829-0.00007-1 69
Copyright Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.