Data Governance Must Bridge Business Process, Policy, Architecture, And Value

Business process and data management professionals recognize the business need for effective data governance and the value it can deliver. Yet data governance remains an immature and poorly understood competency within most organizations. The challenge for most organizations is to effectively scope, prioritize, and organize a data governance program that will be acceptable within the confines of an existing corporate culture. Calculating short-term data governance ROI is tricky, so you must deliver business value quickly to quiet the cynics and detractors looking to derail the effort before it begins. Don't try to boil the ocean; instead, identify the most critical business processes and decisions that trusted data can optimize; define the policies, business rules, and standards that will ensure trusted data; and deliver business value-oriented metrics that will justify the resource investments. Only then can your data governance efforts build the necessary momentum to grow from a one-time project into an ongoing business function and enterprise competency.