Companies are not in the habit of giving priority or even attention to non-revenue-generating programmes and processes, a category into which data governance squarely fits. Proving the case in point is that data governance has been around for a long time - dating back to the '80s.
IBM's recently acquired Initiate Systems recently ran a survey, which found that data governance is hardly a priority for most companies.
Of the respondents to the survey, over 25% of whom were from financial services firms and 22% from the manufacturing sector, most said they had no formal data governance programme and, of those that do, they have ineffective data governance results that provide mediocre policies and guidance.
Where companies had identified data governance as a priority (85%), only 10% were performing well, a quarter were in early stages, and a third were at an early stage of developing repeatable processes.
Just 5% had defined principles and polices that address the business rationale for data quality, and fully 45% had no such documents in place or in planning.
Do the math
The overall math is that under 8% of companies have a data governance strategy in mind or in place.
There are many things to learn from this. The first is that data governance, no matter how well evangelised, remains a fledgling discipline.
It just goes to prove that successful data governance is dependent on executive sponsorship and support. It also shows that there's a lot of room for improvement.
Although data governance hasn't quite cracked CXO-level dinner discussions - according to the survey most data governance programmes are “led by mid-level IT managers and architects” - it is experiencing a resurgence of late. Business intelligence (BI), data integration, data quality management, master data management, good governance, risk and compliance are all driving its reinstatement in business consciousness. All of these programmes, projects, and initiatives are aimed at getting people to make better business decisions, in less time, drawing data from a number of sources, with greater transparency; they are business-objective-driven.
On board
Business people's eyes really light up when talking revenue and profit, and data governance can definitely improve both.
Mervyn Mooi is director of Knowledge Integration Dynamics.
However, the survey also reports: “Over 41% said 'we do not have a data governance board', leading us to believe that most of these data governance initiatives do not have a data governance board leading it, and that they are evolving rather randomly instead of being managed towards corporate goals.” That's significant because the greatest benefit from BI, data integration, data quality and other data-related projects will only be derived from those driving, in unison, towards clear-cut corporate goals.
That may be due to the fact that data discussions still bore the pants off most people - so if there's anyone you want to see with their pants off, just talk data to them - but business people's eyes really light up when talking revenue and profit, and data governance can definitely improve both.
Data governance controls all aspects of data and information management and related business and technical processes - the full life cycle. That means taking it from data conception, to design, creation, transformation, application or consumption, and right up to decommissioning.
That may still all sound boring, but the important thing is that data governance in many organisations is evolving, with possible intent, so far as budget priority and agendas can allow, to make it a formal component of the business strategy.
However, there should be no chicken and egg scenario for greenfield or start-up organisations. Either data governance is formalised into the business strategy from the outset, with a formal data governance committee, board, or team, or the data governance processes are left to evolve or emerge from the ashes or operations before a formal data governance team can be justified and then implemented.
Established organisations need to institute data governance in an evolutionary, gradual, or phased development - but driven toward clearly defined strategic corporate goals as part of a cohesive programme.
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