Effective Data Governance: Why is it Important?

What is Data Governance?

Data Governance, as defined by the Data Governance Institute, is “a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods.” This broad definition accounts for the processes, personnel, best practices, and data governance programs that ensure effective data governance throughout the lifecycle of data management for an entire organization or business.

The Importance of Effective Data Governance

Without effective data governance, underlying data issues can accumulate over long periods of time that degrades data quality and data security. This can lead to costly cleanup jobs, heightened risk of security breaches and data loss, as well as unknown compliance issues that can leave organizations legally liable. Effective data governance provides not just the means to mitigate and prevent such setbacks, but also enhance the use of data in the following ways:

Breaks Down Departmental Silos

Data across multiple departments can often end up siloed when each department has their own data management system with no centralized way of coordinating the data in possession. As a result, common data found in these systems can be very inconsistent for each department, especially as organizations grow, threatening data integrity. Effective data governance helps breaks down the data silos that can form before they grow into a bigger issue, ensuring reliable data.

Aligns Teams Across the Organization

Effective data empowers the personnel in your different teams to collaborate effectively on shared data. Although a data governance team with a Chief Data Officer may be formed for larger organizations to help stay on-track, effective data governance involves everyone and their respective part of the process for an organization’s data.

Connects Technical Databases

The technical requirements of multiple departments can sometimes require multiple databases under the best circumstances. Effective data governance can help keep these technical databases efficiently connected through centralized data governance and decentralized execution.

Determines Policies

Whether carried out by a data governance team or members of the organization at large, effective data governance helps establish and execute a data governance strategy. Policies provide an actionable workflow for data, whether in use or in storage, to keep data secure, up-to-date, and legally compliant across departments on an ongoing basis.

Supports the Data Stewardship Process

When data governance requires dedicated personnel to maintain, data stewards are the front-line employees and subject matter experts tasked with overseeing the data assets assigned to them. In some cases, data stewardship becomes a full-time job. Effective data governance empowers data stewards to carry out their daily tasks by guiding their efforts with the policies and procedures established for the organization.

Shows How Data is Organized

Effective data governance provides a granular look at how data is structured and organized in the technical databases of an organization. When unknown and unstructured data can be identified and acted upon with policies and for legal compliance, the departments and data governance teams avoid being left in the dark on potentially sensitive data issues.

Get Started with Data Governance

The hardest part of developing an effective data governance framework for an organization is knowing how to develop and start a data governance strategy. The best way to start data governance is knowing the data that you have with a data governance program. Classify360 can help, with a manage-in-place toolset that can securely identify and analyze your data. Classify360 also has policy and automation tools to help act on your data and set a foundation for your data governance.