Data Governance: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 4. Data Governance over a Data Life Cycle

In previous chapters, we introduced governance, what it means, and the tools and processes that make governance a reality, as well as the people and process aspects of governance. This chapter will bring together those concepts and provide a data life cycle approach to operationalize governance within your organization.

You will learn about a data life cycle, the different phases of a data life cycle, data life cycle management, applying data governance over a data life cycle, crafting a data governance policy, best practices along each life cycle phase, applicable examples, and considerations for implementing governance. For some, this chapter will validate what you already know; for others, it will help you ponder, plant seeds, and consider how these learnings can be applied within your organization. This chapter will introduce and address a lot of concepts that will help you get started on the journey to making governance a reality. Before getting into the detailed aspects of governance, it’s important to center our understanding on data life cycle management and what it means for governance.

What Is a Data Life Cycle?

Defining what a data life cycle is should be easy—but in reality, it’s quite complex. If you look up the definition of a data life cycle and its phases, you quickly realize that it varies from one author to another, and from one organization to another. There’s honestly not one right way to think about the different ...