Modernizing Data Governance

Introduction

The New Age of Data Governance

CDAOs from the world’s leading organizations met virtually over the past six months to discuss data needs and business continuity amidst the evolving challenges of 2020. Data and analytics leaders and their teams have been integral in providing information and insights influencing business responses and adjustments to the crisis. 

2020 has been a transformative year for many organizations. In order to ensure companies remain compliant and focused on evolving regulations, governance programs have become more important than ever. Data leaders are taking steps to modernize their governance frameworks to thrive in a digital business environment. 

The Importance of Data Governance: 3 Themes

One CDAO explained: “Data monetization is now what we see turning data governance on its head.” CDAOs are managing change in data governance frameworks and structures, digital initiatives and innovation — all while they balance different government styles that influence stakeholders.

Data governance is an ever-evolving journey and best practices are not a “good thing” to have, but rather a “must have” for organizations to remain competitive. In discussions with CDAOs on this topic, three themes emerged:

1. The State of Data Governance

Until now, governance was about controlling access, defining and cataloguing data. It was activity driven — but now, data governance is focused on digitally enabling the enterprise and innovation.

1. Quantifying the Value

Data monetization is changing governance.  It’s not about selling data; it's about deriving value from the data.

1. The Future of Data Governance

CDAOs are exploring whether or not data governance can speed up decision-making and data-driven insights — or even innovation.

1. The State of Data Governance

Data and analytics leaders believe that data governance is a journey. They are managing innovation and digital initiatives, while balancing flexibility and compliance.

Community Voices

We all have stories of something unusual happening because we didn’t understand the lineage between systems. But that’s why it’s so important in governance to build those things like lineages. The biggest successes we’re having in using a data lineage tool is going into an engineering meeting and being able to help leaders understand how changes to an API would impact downstream systems.

Mike Burkes
Southern California CDAO Community

I don’t think any organization can claim to be mature in their data governance practices. Data governance is an evolving journey. It is not something that is a good-to-have for organizations; this is a must-have to remain in business.

Sriram Iyer
Minneapolis CDAO Community

Data governance as we know it is dead. It was a report-driven data governance of the past. The end goal was to have the reports that executives will see and regulators will check. Now, what we call it is data value management.

Sravan Kasarla
Minneapolis CDAO Community

You have to think about technology, the process and the people; and in order to have a durable solution, you have to orchestrate all three of those levers in a way that allows you to execute within your reality, within your company’s reality, the best way possible.

Laté Lawson
Chicago CDAO Community

I like to give the example of crawl, walk, run. In our organization, I would say we have been walking for a while. It seems like every time you feel you are getting to a point where you can start running, there’s a new acquisition, merger, or partnership which puts you back. There isn’t necessarily a point ever where you reach a ‘state of nirvana,’ but having a solid foundation in place and focusing on the analytics side of MDM first, and then the operational side, you can help show quick value to the organization.

Harinder Singh
San Francisco CDAO Community

2. Quantifying the Value

 Data monetization is not about selling data, but about deriving value from data. Value is not an objective thing, but monetization creates a way for everybody to understand the value of data and analytics.

Community Voices

Building a successful business case for data governance is tough. But new compliance measures have helped drive leadership’s understanding of how important it is to categorize and classify data. There are so many great examples to use as a top line header on the business case for data governance, like compliance, time to action, or even data protection. All of these are very important for us to do.

Mike Burkes
Southern California CDAO Community

One approach to evaluating our initiatives is to define the business case based on the cost of poor quality. What’s the impact of not implementing a solution in a certain way? We also need to ‘follow the dollar.’ The best teams have a great financial modeler who works in partnership with a great analytics team and technology partner to help you define the business case.

Sriram Iyer
Minneapolis CDAO Community

If processes are designed as lightweight measures to help, as opposed to punishing requirements, then those embedded practices will show value.

Laté Lawson
Chicago CDAO Community

The most effective way of getting buy-in has been aligning data governance directly to business goals or initiatives – but it’s easier said than done. If data governance is done in a silo, no matter how good, it will take a back seat. But if it’s aligned from Day 1 to a business objective, you will get a seat at the table.

Harinder Singh
San Francisco CDAO Community

3. The Future of Data Governance

Innovation is in the driving of a tailored approach to a given situation.

Community Voices

The biggest challenge we face is knowing where the data is, how it all ties together, and how to annotate all the data in our systems as something we need to protect.

Mike Burkes
Southern California CDAO Community

A mentor once gave me a mantra that I continue to live by: Share information, don’t share data. We have to remember that data is growing faster than what we can keep up with. How can we continue to manage the growth in a way that is productive and beneficial for us?

Sriram Iyer
Minneapolis CDAO Community

Discovering where data comes from, the quality and the profile of the data is becoming more prevalent. That's where the innovation is -- in how we're applying it.

Sravan Kasarla
Minneapolis CDAO Community

If you are always fighting fire, you will never have the headspace to lay out the foundation for the future. Governance is a long journey and we will consider ourselves successful when we are able to do governance without ever saying the word governance, because at that point, you know you’re doing everything right.

Laté Lawson
Chicago CDAO Community

Conclusion

Sharing information and insights across the enterprise is highly valuable. As one CDAO pointed out, “In a world where information is a catalyst to success, should we be seeking to restrict access more so than give?”

Data leaders are establishing data governance best practices in a way to optimize the available data; this is the governance journey many enterprises currently find themselves on. It will take time and every industry is different, but data and analytics is in a constant state of evolution. If CDAOs are emboldened to be smarter with how data is produced and used, a data governance program shows its value. Heading into late 2020 and the new year, CDAOs are focusing on their top priorities, empowered by supporting their businesses with true insights, and advancing those data governance journeys.

Special thanks to all participating companies.

by CDAOs, for CDAOs

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