Information Governance, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 3Information Governance Principles

Using guiding principles to drive your information governance (IG) program can help educate stakeholders, focus efforts, and maintain consistency.

The Sedona Conference® Commentary on Information Governance

The Sedona Conference is a group of mostly legal and technology professionals that meets periodically and develops commentary and guidance on e-discovery, electronic records, privacy, risk, IG, and related issues. They have developed 11 general principles of IG,¹ which provide guidance on the expectations and aims of IG programs. These principles can further an IG team's understanding of IG and can be used in an introductory “IG Awareness Training” session in the early stages of your program launch. A good exercise is to have team members rewrite these principles in their own words, and then hold discussions about how each of these principles would apply to their departmental IG efforts, and the overall IG program. The Sedona Conference Commentary on IG, formed as principles, are:

1. Organizations should consider implementing an IG program to make coordinated decisions about information for the benefit of the overall organization that address information-related requirements and manage risks while optimizing value.
2. An IG program should maintain sufficient independence from any particular department or division to ensure that decisions are made for the benefit of the overall organization.
3. All information stakeholders should participate ...