Having witnessed and consulted on a number of data projects, I have gathered my thoughts and put together my top 5 reasons why organisations fail at data governance.
You may disagree with my opinion and if so, great, I am always up for a healthy debate on the matter.
My first reason why data governance fails in most organisation is this, no one knows what it means and therefore they have no idea how to go about implementing ‘good’ governance. When asked about data governance, the first thing people mention is data quality and generally how bad it is! Data quality for most is synonymous with data governance but the reality is that data quality is a symptom of data governance. Good governance results in good data quality and poor governance results in poor data quality. So if it is not data quality, what is it? Well put simply, data governance is the formalising of behaviours relating to the definition, production and use of data. That’s it! Nothing fancy, nothing long winded, just a simple sentence. If most organisations are able to get their senior management to buy into this simple sentence and invest time into building a framework of governance then success will not be far behind. Notice there was no mention of money in this statement? That’s because the biggest commitment when it comes to a successful data governance program of work is time.
The second reason most organisations fail at data governance is a lack of understanding and support at a senior level. I touched on this a little with my first point because it all starts at the top. If your executive and senior management team do not understand what data governance is, they will not be passionate about it and they will not understand how critical it is to the success of the organisations future in a digital world. In many organisations the executive and senior management get excited about the things they can see! I liken it to this, data governance is the relative that everyone knows but nobody gets, likes to talk about or engage with and definitely do not invite to all the family parties. Data governance is misunderstood and given a little time and attention, executives and senior managers can learn to love it and become the advocates of it down their respective reporting lines. For data governance to gain the traction it needs in any organisation there has to be a push from the top of the food chain! If your leadership are excited about it, the rest of the organisation will follow suit.
The third reason most organisations fail at data governance is because data is not recognised as a strategic asset. Data is now the most valuable asset that any organisation owns. The organisation that invests in, manages and leverages its data is well positioned in a digital age. Data should be regarded a corporate asset in the same way as machinery, buildings, I.T. hardware, vehicles, office furniture and equipment etc. are all considered assets. There is a plan in place to ensure that business can continue should anything happen to the asset. Money is invested to maintain them and keep them in tip top shape. Teams of people are employed to play a role in the management, administration, protection, use of and maintenance of these assets. The organisation sets aside money to train the resources allocated to these assets and plans for the future of these assets. They are all considered at a strategic level and leveraged to the betterment of the organisation. Data should be regarded and revered in the same way. Until data is seen as an asset every attempt to govern it will be considered a ‘nice to have’ activity as opposed to the critical activity that it is.
The fourth reason data governance fails is because organisations view data governance as a set of processes to live by the letter of rather than a framework to abide by. When data governance is viewed as additional work to be carried out by individuals on top of their existing duties, it becomes a chore rather than a safe boundary to make responsibilities, and therefore, everyday duties clearer and simpler. Data governance exists in every organisation but it does so on a sliding scale from absolute anarchy to authoritarian. Personally I do not believe either extreme is any good for a business. Data can be so badly governed that decision making is chaotic, reactive and ineffective. On the other end of the scale, data governance can be so formal that it is prohibitive and actually limits the value of data across the enterprise. Funnily enough this extreme will ultimately have the same end result, chaotic, reactive and ineffective decision making. Data governance should be implemented in such a manner that it promotes the controlled, consistent proliferation of well defined usable data across the enterprise.
The fifth reason data governance fails is because the data is divorced from the organisations business processes and decision making. Statistical process control is a technique that has been adopted across many industries. Data is used to set acceptable thresholds which indicate an acceptable range of performance for the variable in question, be that a process, product or outcomes. A breach of the threshold should trigger a business process to investigate and take the appropriate action. To make this effective the data driving this process must be trusted and of good quality. The definition of the data must be clear and disseminated to all parties involved in the business process. The collection of the data must be consistent whether that is via an automated route or manual entry. Any rules applied to the data must be clearly defined, understood, documented and disseminated to all users and any change of the data must be appropriately managed. Only with these things in place can this data be considered trusted and, at a high level, good quality. Data is only of value to an organisation when it drives a business process. If you remember that then you are bound to take far more care of the data you collect and hold.
These are my personal top 5 reasons why data governance programs fail in an organisation. Understanding these provides a firm foundation to build on and will put you on the path to success with your data.
If you would like to find out more about data governance why not sign up for our “introduction to data governance” course. Available here on our Training page.