Data Governance: How to Get Started

Do you speak data governance?

With varying definitions of data governance, it’s critical that your entire organization is on the same page

Have you ever met someone, perhaps at work, but didn’t catch their name or weren’t formally introduced during your first encounter? Since then, you exchanged pleasantries on numerous occasions, perhaps engaged in entire conversations—but still didn’t know their name?

By that point, enough time had passed and so, too, the opportunity to ask their name without it being awkward at best, and insulting at worst.

That’s actually how many people feel about data governance. It seems that everyone is talking about it, and its importance, but there are many among us who feel like we missed some vital introduction. We think we should know exactly what data governance is, but we missed our opportunity to ask, and now it seems almost embarrassing to inquire at this late date.

But the truth is, formalized data governance is really in its infancy, and you’ll find that the people who don’t quite understand it comprise the majority. Even among those who say they understand exactly what data governance is, definitions will vary widely. Industries, lines of business, job function—all of these inform and influence how we define data governance, and what it means to us. But the important thing is not to establish a universal, formal definition, but rather to understand the fundamentals of what data governance entails, what it is intended to accomplish and how it can serve increasingly important functions in an era of big data. So let’s dig into this topic and try to understand what everyone seems to be talking about.