How to Implement Data Governance: Practical Steps for Getting Started

By: Bethany Avery & Amanda Cose

Is your organization grappling with where to begin in implementing data governance practices? If so, read on as we outline three simple recommendations and practices that you can get started with, regardless of the size and sophistication of your operation. 

The Key to Data Governance: Understanding Your Data

Recommendation 1 - Create a Terms Glossary

How often have you been in a situation where two different employees or divisions use the same term to describe two very different things? This is something we see all the time and is indeed inevitable. However, governing your data must start with understanding your data. It is essential to start with the basics of defining and socializing the definitions of your key terminology. This is not something that you need a fancy system for, and at its heart, it can be accomplished via a readily accessible spreadsheet, document, or Confluence page that tracks the following key elements for each term:

1. Term

2. Business Definition

3. Data Definition

   
   

Here’s an example: What do we mean when we say “gift” or “retained”? Describing the word in user-friendly language is your business definition, but you’ll want to translate that to the data definition (or how you would pull this definition in your CRM, data warehouse, etc). Sometimes, you’ll find that there are even incongruencies between the assumed business definitions and data definitions, which require thorough discussion between the business and technical teams. But it is time well spent as solidifying these terms up front makes everyone’s lives more manageable when you use them in reports and other artifacts, avoiding misunderstandings, bugs, and more. 

It is also good practice to reference your data source(s) for each term. For example, when referring to revenue or accounts within a definition, are you referring to these in the context of your CRM, your ERP, or both? As mentioned in this post, this practice is invaluable when referencing specific terms during the requirements-gathering phase of implementing new dashboards and reports.

Recommendation 2 - Data Governance Committee

A committee is a group of people who keep minutes but lose hours.

All jokes aside, it is essential to have a champion of your data governance efforts in each area of your business. This committee can also be responsible for reviewing and approving the terms glossary work from step 1 and take on a leadership role in communicating the efforts across their respective teams in the organization. The most likely scenario is this committee is composed of very busy individuals who already juggle numerous responsibilities. Creating a cadence that is regular in intervals but not overwhelming can help to ensure that slow and steady progress is maintained. Perhaps it’s biweekly, perhaps monthly - but the important part is starting somewhere and being diligent not to cancel when things get busy, which they inevitably will!

Don't Lose Time in your Data Governance journey.

Recommendation 3 - Leverage the Terms Glossary in your Requirements Gathering and Documentation

Once you have a solid list of terms defined, be sure to use them in your requirements conversations and documentation. Link back to them. Share them on screen. Pause to answer questions on them. This is where the hard work of change management comes in. When you encounter misuse of a particular term, use the glossary to correct confusion. You will find as you do this that the work of requirements and documentation naturally spawns the creation of yet more terms to be added to your glossary! And the cycle will continue until your team is well-versed in a shared understanding of your data foundation.

Of course, there are so many practices you can layer in beyond this, but for those just getting started, we hope this gives you a non-overwhelming place to start!