Data Governance is what we do to make data useful, usable and to put it to use safely, preferably without breaking any laws or breaking the bank.

Y Tho?

Have you ever used a communal room? Y’know a shared space, maybe a storage room where you keep handy things like stationery, pens, paper, loo roll, that kind of thing?

Have you considered what makes a nice shared space? Is it clean and tidy? One where you can easily find what you want?

Now, think of the worst shared space you’ve encountered. Okay, maybe the second worst if that gave you a panic attack. Not so nice is it? Crap all over the floor. Pens in the pencil slots, and is that a stuffed parrot wedged into between the shelves?! How does anyone find anything? Do we need to go spelunking?!

Hey, maybe it didn’t start out as a mess. Maybe we started with a few unenforced rules and good intentions. No matter how it started, it sure ended up in a messy way.

Data isn’t any different. It’s a shared resource used by everyone in your organisation. Yes, everyone uses data in one way or another! No matter how you cut it, dice it, slice it, or stack it, no one fully controls the data they create, manage, or use. So sharing is a thing.

When it comes to shared resources, we need ground rules so it doesn’t end in tears. We need to know how to keep our data tidy, we need to be able to get at it when we need it, and we need to trust it and fix it when it’s broken, wrong, or just plain bad.

We can’t do all of that in any reasonably sized enterprise on a wing and a prayer. We need tools to help us, especially when we’re dealing with data at scale. We need people who know what’s what to keep an eye on things. We need experts to steer us towards pragmatic solutions. We need a form of governance, data governance.

Why? Because when our data is a mess, we enter the data despair cycle. A place where we don’t trust the data so we don’t use it and because we don’t use it, it never gets better. Since we need data for lots of important stuff, from making decisions to making AI, from automating stuff to understanding stuff, bad data is literally money down the drain.

That’s not the only reason we need governance around data. There’s also the legal stuff. You know, regulations and the like we need to comply with so we don’t get our wrists slapped, wreck our organisation’s reputation, or go to jail.

Data is a valuable resource and a shared asset. We need Data Governance to make sure the people in and around our organisation can keep it useful, make it usable, and to put it to use.

Data Governance changes how humans behave around data.

– Edafe Onerhime

In summary: Data Governance is an approach, using processes and technology, to ensure that people manage and use data safely and effectively.