Tips for Successful Data Governance for Better Business

Master Data governance solution goes beyond just making sure that your data is correct, it allows the business to improve its overall MRO data governance and makes sure that any data handling carried out is compliant with the regulations of governing bodies such as GDPR or HIPAA. Here are 10 ways that ensures successful data governance within the business.

Data compliance and classification

As mentioned before, data compliance is essential for any business. Without the knowledge of what kind of data you’re handling, you could unknowingly be in breach of government requirements such as GDPR. A data governance framework can set in place rules to abide by and avoid these kinds of legally dangerous situations.

Educate and promote data literacy

Data literacy is vital to using and understanding data properly. Data literacy can be taken for granted within those filling the roles of data owners or data analyzers, but data literacy beyond the IT department is also hugely important. Educating business leaders in data literacy can allow them to gain much better insights into the organization as a whole through the lens of data analytics.

Establishing data quality

Data governance should not be seen as secondary to data strategy. Again, the poorer your data is at the outset, the poorer the overall analytics result will be. By understanding the origins of your different sources of data, you can build controls for data quality and integrity. A better way to do this is via a system that automatically checks and establishes data quality at its source. Thinking about and establishing data quality via data governance before you implement your data strategy is key to successful data analysis.

Role and responsibility

Data and analytics leaders can’t keep track of all the incoming and manipulation of data within a company because it’s simply too much work. Delegation of data roles within a business is vital, and these roles come in the form of data owners and data stewards. Data owners are senior members within an organization, responsible for taking accountability of the quality of a dataset. Beneath data owners are data stewards who are directly responsible for the quality of a defined dataset and the maintenance of that dataset on a day to day basis.

Alignment with corporate strategy

Governance is but one pillar of the overall data strategy guide. Your business needs to make sure that the governance procedures that you’re putting in place align with the overall corporate data strategy. Data governance rules should cover the entire company, there should not be different governing rules for different data sources or data sets.

Who benefits from the data?

Understanding who benefits from data usage and data and analytics is key to framing the data in the correct way. The operating environment of whoever the data is for should be understood and taken into account when preparing the data. For example, if the recipient is on the manufacturing floor then they’ll need data only relevant to them and their decision making as well as a way to view that data, such as on a mobile device rather than in an office on a desktop.

High-value results first

The best way to demonstrate the importance of data and data usage, especially to people who may not have a technical or data background, is by producing tangible results that can be understood and appreciated by any member of the company. Displaying successes such as this early into your data journey can help to drive adoption and confidence in the program.

Culture development

Developing your organization’s data culture can help to drive efficiency, collaboration innovation within that aspect of your business. This can also allow your data strategy to be as innovative as possible and allow your business to pursue avenues such as automation and subsequently share this knowledge throughout the company.

Cloud expertise

The cloud is one of the staple technologies of the modern business world. Using the cloud gives your business numerous benefits and typically saves more money than using methods that don’t use the cloud, but there are still some dangers that come with using a shared virtual space. There is still a danger of using the cloud in an insecure manner, especially for users who are less data literate, and understanding how to avoid this is another key aspect of data governance.

Specific data availability

Data availability should vary according to the user accessing said data and the data classification. However, as much as possible, mro data cleansing companies should avoid using the principle of least privilege. In the context of data and analytics, least privilege can stifle innovation and provide analysts with a reduced ability to explore low-risk data and pursue optimization.

Conclusion

Using these 10 tips, you can ensure that your business follows the principles of successful data governance to increase analytics-driven decision-making and reduce the risks involved with data handling and analysis.