Declaration of Data Governance

Declaration of Data Governance

Jul 07, 2010 by in Data Governance, Data Quality

I recently read Data Governance Remains Immature by Rob Karel, where he wrote about “the growing recognition that data governance is not—and should never have been—about the data.”  Although I definitely agree with that statement, I don’t agree with his next statement “so what is data governance all about?  It’s all about business process, of course.”

In fairness, everyone has their own definition of data governance—perhaps this is a reflection of the data governance maturity issue, about which I also agree with Rob.

From my perspective, the primary focus of data governance is the strategic alignment of people throughout the organization through the definition, and enforcement, of policies in relation to data access, data sharing, data quality, and effective data usage, all for the purposes of supporting critical business decisions and enabling optimal business performance.

Therefore, in my worldview, data governance involves policies, people, business processes, data, and of course, technology.

However, all of those last four concepts (people, business process, data, technology) are critical to every enterprise initiative. 

So, from my perspective, the key concept differentiating data governance is—Policy.

And as Rob rightfully points out, confusion will inevitably arise from the very name “data governance,” from which you have to admit, it makes perfect sense that people assume it must be all about “governing data.”

It’s really all about policies, which declare what data governance really governs, the (often complex) ways that people, business process, data, and technology interact. 

A data governance policy can involve any combination of people, business process, data, and technology, and sometimes—all four of them.

This topic, combined with the recent Fourth of July holiday here in the United States (which was also my birthday—Happy Birthday to me! :-) ), made me decide to channel my inner Thomas Jefferson (the primary author of the Declaration of Independence), and thereby write the following Declaration of Data Governance.

Declaration of Data Governance

When in the course of Business Maturity, it becomes necessary for one Organization to dissolve the Political Barriers which have separated their Business Units from each other, and to assume among the Powers of the Enterprise, the united and shared Purpose to which the Laws of Human Nature and for The Greater Corporate Good guide them, and with always a decent Respect to the Opinions of all People, requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to implement Data Governance.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Data is a Corporate Asset, owned by the entire Enterprise, and endowed by its Data Stewards with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Data Quality Standards, Business Relevant Metrics, and the pursuit of a Shared Version of the Truth.

That to secure these Rights, Policies are instituted among People, Business Processes, Data, and Technology, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed to abide by them, and that whenever any Policy disrupts optimal business performance, it is the Right of the Data Governance Board to refine or remove it, and to institute a new Policy, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect its Measurement and Enforcement.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Policies long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Data Governance Maturity Models have shown, that Enterprises are more disposed to adopt a Data Governance Framework when it is tailored to fit the Unique Corporate Culture to which they are accustomed.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the People, Business Processes, Data, and Technology of this Enterprise, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of this Organization, solemnly Publish and Declare, that this Data Governance Program is, and by Right ought to be, our new Enterprise Standard of Excellence.

For the support of this Declaration of Data Governance, and with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the Human Side of Business, we now mutually pledge to each other, our Communication, our Collaboration, and our Trust.  So Say We All.

Sign the Declaration of Data Governance

Please “sign” this Declaration of Data Governance by posting a comment below.

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11 Responses to “Declaration of Data Governance”

  1. Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen

    Jul 07, 2010

    Yet a fantastic paraphrasing, Jim.

    It must be great to have a declaration of the birth of your country like that of Thomas Jefferson.

    The birth of my country Denmark is regarded as being in the text on a runic stone from around 958. It simply says that “Gorm won all of Denmark”.

    Gorm the Old (also called Gorm the Sleepy) was the first king of Denmark and father to the next king called Harold Bluetooth :-)

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  2. James Standen

    Jul 07, 2010

    Well first, Happy Birthday Jim.

    Great Post- Data governance needs to be institutionalized within an organisation, and having a declaration might be a first step.

    The trick is getting all the people in the organisation to become fanatic about protecting the concept and the institutions created to support it.

    The US and its constitution is certainly a real world example. If you can create a data governance culture with checks and balances, institutions to keep it all going, and a population that believes very strongly in the founding document, you can do amazing things.

    And we can see that this does not mean there can’t be debate (as there certainly is) and disagreement about where its all going- but rather than chaos, the debate takes place within a framework that allows progress, with institutions to support it, and make it work. All this changes over time, the trick being as you point out- not too fast, not too slow.

    Data governance is hard. But organisations who achieve it will, quite simply, win.

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  3. Jim Harris

    Jul 07, 2010

    Thanks Henrik and James for “signing” the Declaration of Data Governance!

    So Say We All!
    :-)

    @Henrik – All hail Gorm Løge dvaske, the first historically recognized King of Denmark! You gotta love a country whose “founder” had the honorific “the Sleepy” — now, that’s a monarchy I could support :-)

    @James – Well first, thanks for the Happy Birthday note. And thanks also for the great data governance analogy based on the good ‘ol USA–U! S! A!–U! S! A!–U! S! A!–Sorry about that, being born on the Fourth of July makes me even more prone to chanting U! S! A! than most Americans :-)

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  4. Phil Simon

    Jul 07, 2010

    Good stuff, Jim.

    I echo your sentiment about achieving balance among technology, process, people, and data. I don’t see how you govern (or whatever you’d like to call it) by focusing on merely on pillar. Blaming technology, for example, while exonerating people in tantamount the golfer only blaming his clubs. He does swing them!

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  5. Marty Moseley

    Jul 07, 2010

    Freakin’ awesome!
    I love this!
    Thanks as well for elevating the concept of “declarations” of policy! My fifth of five webinars on DG (in a few weeks) will be all about Declarations of Principles, Policies, Procedures/Processes, Biz Rules and Metrics!
    I have some good examples of each, and am always looking for more.
    This is perhaps your best reframing so far, imho.
    I gladly and humbly sign your Declaration of Data Governance!

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  6. Jim Harris

    Jul 07, 2010

    Thanks Phil and Marty for “signing” the Declaration of Data Governance!

    So Say We All!
    :-)

    @Phil – Yes, I definitely believe that achieving a balanced view of the ways that people, business process, data, and technology interact on every successful enterprise initiative is the ultimate goal for data governance–even if we end up eventually giving this true best practice a new name at some point in the future (again, data governance can be a very misleading term). However, I disagree with your golf analogy–clearly the one and only reason that I am such a bad golfer is because of my clubs :-)

    @Marty – I am glad you liked it, and I agree that this blog post is probably my best writing on the topic of data governance (at least so far :-) ). I am looking forward to attending your next webinar, the first four were freakin’ awesome! (So, no pressure–I am sure the fifth one will be great too :-) )

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  7. Marcus Burrows

    Jul 07, 2010

    Jim

    As a fan of paraphrasing (more for humorous purposes) I can only sit back in admiration and laud this proposition!

    How on earth do I counter this with an example of ‘constittional monarchy’ in the context of governance (oh, there is one, but there isn’t room here and I don’t want to take anyhting away from this!).

    Funny how History is our best teacher of these things (collectivization of the Kulaks as a funding model anyone?)…

    Best,

    Marcus

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  8. Jim Harris

    Jul 07, 2010

    Thanks Marcus for “signing” the Declaration of Data Governance!

    So Say We All!
    :-)

    As the philosopher Hegel wrote:

    “What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.”

    So although I agree that history is indeed our best teacher of these things, some of its lessons sadly cannot be taught, they can only be learned.

    Best Regards,

    Jim

    P.S. Kudos on the Kulaks reference – it is not often that I have to admit to needing to look something up on Wikipedia, but I definitely did on this occasion! :-)

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  9. Dylan Jones

    Jul 09, 2010

    You make a lot of great points in there Jim, none more so than the words around policy.

    We have to be so careful that data governance doesn’t drift into execution, that is management, by forcing people to think about policies I hope that we can start to make the distinction between data governance and data quality management.

    great post as ever.

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  10. Jim Harris

    Jul 12, 2010

    Thanks Dylan for “signing” the Declaration of Data Governance!

    So Say We All!
    :-)

    I definitely agree with your point about how we need to be careful that data governance doesn’t drift into execution, where we can easily lose the distinction between data governance and data quality management (or master data management, etc.).

    I think that is a common mistake — and the subject of another blog post ;-)

    Cheers,

    Jim

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