Data governance

Data governance is a term used on both a macro and a micro level. The former is a political concept and
forms part of international relations and Internet governance; the latter is a data management concept and
forms part of corporate data governance.

Macro level
On the macro level, data governance refers to the governing of cross-border data flows by countries, and
hence is more precisely called international data governance. This new field consists of "norms, principles
and rules governing various types of data." [1]

Micro level
Here the focus is on an individual company. Here data governance is a data management concept
concerning the capability that enables an organization to ensure that high data quality exists throughout the
complete lifecycle of the data, and data controls are implemented that support business objectives. The key
focus areas of data governance include availability, usability, consistency,[2] data integrity and data security,
standard compliance and includes establishing processes to ensure effective data management throughout
the enterprise such as accountability for the adverse effects of poor data quality and ensuring that the data
which an enterprise has can be used by the entire organization.

A data steward is a role that ensures that data governance processes are followed and that guidelines are
enforced, as well as recommending improvements to data governance processes.

Data governance encompasses the people, processes, and information technology required to create a
consistent and proper handling of an organization's data across the business enterprise. It provides all data
management practices with the necessary foundation, strategy, and structure needed to ensure that data is
managed as an asset and transformed into meaningful information.[3] Goals may be defined at all levels of
the enterprise and doing so may aid in acceptance of processes by those who will use them. Some goals
include:

Increasing consistency and confidence in decision making

Decreasing the risk of regulatory fines
Improving data security, also defining and verifying the requirements for data distribution
policies[4]
Maximizing the income generation potential of data
Designating accountability for information quality
Enable better planning by supervisory staff
Minimizing or eliminating re-work
Optimize staff effectiveness
Establish process performance baselines to enable improvement efforts
Acknowledge and hold all gain

These goals are realized by the implementation of data governance programs, or initiatives using change
management techniques.
When companies desire, or are required, to gain control of their data, they empower their people, set up
processes and get help from technology to do it.[5]

Data governance drivers

While data governance initiatives can be driven by a desire to improve data quality, they are more often
driven by C-level leaders responding to external regulations. In a recent report conducted by CIO
WaterCooler community, 54% stated the key driver was efficiencies in processes; 39% - regulatory
requirements; and only 7% customer service.[6] Examples of these regulations include Sarbanes–Oxley Act,
Basel I, Basel II, HIPAA, GDPR, cGMP,[7] and a number of data privacy regulations. To achieve
compliance with these regulations, business processes and controls require formal management processes to
govern the data subject to these regulations.[8] Successful programs identify drivers meaningful to both
supervisory and executive leadership.

Common themes among the external regulations center on the need to manage risk. The risks can be
financial misstatement, inadvertent release of sensitive data, or poor data quality for key decisions. Methods
to manage these risks vary from industry to industry. Examples of commonly referenced best practices and
guidelines include COBIT, ISO/IEC 38500, and others. The proliferation of regulations and standards
creates challenges for data governance professionals, particularly when multiple regulations overlap the
data being managed. Organizations often launch data governance initiatives to address these challenges.

Data governance initiatives (Dimensions)

Data governance initiatives improve quality of data by assigning a team responsible for data's accuracy,
completeness, consistency, timeliness, validity, and uniqueness.[9] This team usually consists of executive
leadership, project management, line-of-business managers, and data stewards. The team usually employs
some form of methodology for tracking and improving enterprise data, such as Six Sigma, and tools for
data mapping, profiling, cleansing, and monitoring data.

Data governance initiatives may be aimed at achieving a number of objectives including offering better
visibility to internal and external customers (such as supply chain management), compliance with regulatory
law, improving operations after rapid company growth or corporate mergers, or to aid the efficiency of
enterprise knowledge workers by reducing confusion and error and increasing their scope of knowledge.
Many data governance initiatives are also inspired by past attempts to fix information quality at the
departmental level, leading to incongruent and redundant data quality processes. Most large companies
have many applications and databases that can't easily share information. Therefore, knowledge workers
within large organizations often don't have access to the data they need to best do their jobs. When they do
have access to the data, the data quality may be poor. By setting up a data governance practice or corporate
data authority (individual or area responsible for determining how to proceed, in the best interest of the
business, when a data issue arises), these problems can be mitigated.

Implementation
Implementation of a data governance initiative may vary in scope as well as origin. Sometimes, an
executive mandate will arise to initiate an enterprise wide effort, sometimes the mandate will be to create a
pilot project or projects, limited in scope and objectives, aimed at either resolving existing issues or
demonstrating value. Sometimes an initiative will originate lower down in the organization’s hierarchy, and
will be deployed in a limited scope to demonstrate value to potential sponsors higher up in the organization.
The initial scope of an implementation can vary greatly as well, from review of a one-off IT system, to a
cross-organization initiative.

Data governance tools

Leaders of successful data governance programs declared in December 2006 at the Data Governance
Conference in Orlando, FL, that data governance is between 80 and 95 percent communication." [10] That
stated, it is a given that many of the objectives of a data governance program must be accomplished with
appropriate tools. Many vendors are now positioning their products as data governance tools; due to the
different focus areas of various data governance initiatives, any given tool may or may not be appropriate,
in addition, many tools that are not marketed as governance tools address governance needs and demands

See also
Data sovereignty
Information architecture
Information governance
Information technology governance
Business semantics management
Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules
Master data management
COBIT
ISO/IEC 38500
ISO/TC 215
Operational risk management
Basel II Accord
HIPAA
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Information technology controls
Data Protection Directive (EU)
Universal Data Element Framework
Asset Description Metadata Schema
Simulation Governance
List of datasets for machine-learning research

References
1. "FAQ" (https://datagovhub.elliott.gwu.edu/faq/). Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub.
Retrieved 2023-02-20.
2. "What is data governance and why does it matter?" (https://www.techtarget.com/searchdata
management/definition/data-governance). TechTarget.com. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
3. Firican, George. "What is Data Governance? A complete guide" (https://www.lightsondata.co
m/what-is-data-governance/). LightsOnData. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
4. Gianni, Daniele (2014). "Data Policy Definition and Verification for System of Systems
Governance". Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering
 Applications. pp. 99–130. doi:10.1002/9781118501757.ch5 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2F978
1118501757.ch5). ISBN 9781118460313.
5. Sarsfield, Steve (2009). The Data Governance Imperative. IT Governance Publishing.
ISBN 9781849281102.
6. Warburton, Daniel (2017-03-15). "The Data Governance Report 2017 – Your Copy" (https://
www.ciowatercooler.co.uk/the-data-governance-report-2017-your-copy/).
CIOWaterCooler.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
7. "eCFR — Code of Federal Regulations" (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21). eCFR.gov.
Retrieved 2023-02-20.
8. "Rimes Data Governance Handbook" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160305023232/http://w
ww.rimes.com/rimes-data-governance-handbook). RIMES. 2013-10-16. Archived from the
original (https://www.rimes.com/rimes-data-governance-handbook) on 2016-03-05.
Retrieved 2023-02-20.
9. Dai, Wei; Wardlaw, Isaac (2016). "Data Profiling Technology of Data Governance Regarding
Big Data: Review and Rethinking". Information Technology, New Generations. Advances in
Intelligent Systems and Computing. Vol. 448. pp. 439–450. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-32467-
8_39 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-32467-8_39). ISBN 978-3-319-32466-1.
10. Hopwood, Peter (June 2008). "Data Governance: One Size Does Not Fit All" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20080928194651/http://www.dmreview.com/issues/2007_48/10001356-1.htm
l). DM Review Magazine. Archived from the original (http://www.dmreview.com/issues/2007_
48/10001356-1.html) on 2008-09-28. Retrieved 2023-02-20. "At the inaugural Data
Governance Conference in Orlando, Florida, in December 2006, leaders of successful data
governance programs declared that in their experience, data governance is between 80 and
95 percent communication. Clearly, data governance is not a typical IT project."

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Data_governance&oldid=1164519300"