Practitioner's Guide to Operationalizing Data Governance

CHAPTER 7Organizational Framework

RESULTS YOU CAN EXPECT WHEN THERE IS NO DEFINED ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Without a defined organizational structure, people do not know what they are supposed to do or where they fit in. Because they do not know what is expected of them, they either do what they think is best or — worst case — they do nothing. The larger the intended reach of Data Governance is, the riskier it is to not think about the organizational structure.

ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK ROLES

I coach customers to not get too hung up on the exact titles of participating bodies. The title needs to resonate with the organization, which means there is an organizational culture aspect to what the bodies need to be called. A lot of organizations will start with forming a Council and then appointing Data Stewards. This is done with little thought as to how the roles are going to operate, collaborate, make decisions, communicate, or provide support. A better approach to building your organizational structure is to start with the four necessary functions of a Data Governance ecosystem. Consider the following (Figure 7.1).

Figure 7.1 The Data Governance Ecosystem.

Support

The Data Governance program needs to be supported at the highest level of the organization. This support comes ...