Rachel Morgan

Oct 25, 20222 min

Data Governance - Make it a Team Sport

Updated: May 30, 2023

Data Governance

A lot of people will probably stop reading now as those two words individually can be seen as boring but together they can induce a coma.

But before you go, what if I was to tell you that this is the key to driving additional revenue for your business and ensuring that you get the returns on any technology investment you make.

Maybe you would stay longer?

Data has been coined the new oil, BUT like oil, it's no use in its raw format, it is the engine that processes it that creates the power.

Knowledge is power and data is fuel which needs to be processed in a consistent way.

Technology is often thought of as the engine for processing BUT ensuring that it’s done

in a ‘consistent way’ is critical here because otherwise, you can get different results and no one trusts the data.

And that’s why you need Data Governance, which in simple terms means “agreeing on the rules by which you process the data”.

Technology won't magically make this happen and it is unlikely that your technical teams will know the best rules to put in place.

It is the users of the data that need to agree on the rules to ensure that you are turning data into knowledge. Here’s a practical example from one of our clients:

The benefits to a business of having defined “data rules” are very clear:

  • Consistent insight

  • Clear data and messages for the business

  • Universal trust in the data

  • Trusted data being used to inform decisions

  • Reduced time being wasted, due to reinventing the data wheel

  • Data being used to identify new opportunities

  • Increase in revenue and profitability

I have two different analogies here that can be useful when embarking on putting data governance in place, looking at examples of team sports and company brand guidelines:

So how do we make sure that data projects don’t fail through lack of data governance?

  1. Make it someone's job to own the rules. They might not define them but have someone responsible for getting them defined and agreed.

  2. Get people engaged - Like most things, people will engage if it's relevant to them or if they understand the impact that it will have on them or their job.

  3. Define the rules - make it a team sport to define and agree the rules.

  4. Get everyone to use the rules - approach it like brand guidelines, ensuring everyone is aware of the data governance guidelines and works strictly to them.

If you would like further information on how to approach data governance, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you!

    28