BUSINESS GLOSSARY VS DATA CATALOG: A TALE OF TWO CITIES?

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Business glossaries and data catalogs play vital roles within data management. They are essential components in virtually any data architecture, but their purposes and interconnections are not always clear to everyone and as such worth exploring.

Exploring the relationships

A business glossary and a data catalog are closely related components within the field of data management. They both serve the purpose of organizing and documenting information about data assets within an organization, but they focus on different aspects.

Business Glossaries – Establishing the common language

A business glossary is a centralized repository or collection of terms and definitions that are specific to the organization’s business domain. It provides a common understanding and consistent definition of business terms used across different departments and stakeholders. The business glossary helps ensure clear communication and alignment between business users, data professionals, and technical teams by establishing a shared vocabulary.

Data Catalogs – Unveiling the data landscape

On the other hand, a data catalog is a comprehensive inventory of the available data assets within an organization. It provides detailed information about the structure, content, and characteristics of each dataset or data source. A data catalog captures metadata about the data, including data lineage, data sources, data quality, and other relevant information. It serves as a valuable reference for data consumers, data analysts, and data scientists to discover, understand, and effectively utilize the available data assets.

Complementary forces

The link between a business glossary and a data catalog lies in their complementary roles in facilitating data understanding and governance. While the business glossary focuses on defining business terms and ensuring consistent business vocabulary, the data catalog provides technical information about the underlying data assets. The business glossary helps users interpret and understand the data catalog by providing clear definitions of the business terms used in the metadata descriptions. In turn, the data catalog helps enrich the business glossary by associating technical metadata with the corresponding business terms, enhancing the overall understanding of the data assets and their context within the organization.

By integrating a business glossary with a data catalog, organizations can bridge the gap between business and technical perspectives, fostering better collaboration, data governance, and data-driven decision-making.


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TOP DATA OBSERVABILITY & DATA QUALITY TRENDS TO PUT ON YOUR RADAR

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Data quality management is a critical component in the successful realization of your data strategy, and there are several hot topics that are currently gaining traction in this area. Here are some of the latest trends in data quality & data observability:

  • DQaaS or DQSaaS
  • Hybrid Usage & Island Hopping.
  • Machine Learning has hit the DQ space.
  • From patchwork to a fundamental capability.
  • From a technology to a business driven framework.


TREND #1. DQaaS or DQSaaS

Data quality as a service (DQaaS or DQSaaS) is an emerging trend that involves outsourcing a subset of data quality management functionality to third-party cloud application providers. DQaaS providers offer tools and services to monitor and improve data quality, reducing the workload on in-house data teams. In general, SaaS is provided in a cloud-based or hosted model.

We see two types of DQaaS:
  • One type basically providing a complete set of data quality functionalities (equivalent to traditional on-premise offerings) that run on cloud platforms. Clients typically order them on demand from cloud enabled vendors and often use them on a subscription basis (1 year or longer).
  • The other type of DQaaS is basically based on on-demand online services to i.e. validate and verify addresses or other relevant data assets. These micro data quality services are typically used on a pay per usage / service-call basis.

TREND #2. Hybrid Usage & Island Hopping

Until recently, Data Quality was primarily applied in an operational/transactional context. DQ in an analytics context was also already implemented in quiet some organization, but what is relative new is the enhanced DQ usage in a number of other data related initiatives such as MDM, DG, Data Engineering and AI/ML. What we also see as part of that move, is a shift from an island DQ usage tailored towards one specific initiative to an organization-wide DQ usage. The organization-wide DQ approach provides a number of benefits ranging from more consistent data quality up to enhanced collaboration, more efficient data processing and reuse.

TREND #3. Machine Learning has hit the DQ space

We don’t need to explain you that AI/ML is hot and all over the place. The AI/ML examples that you read about might not always seem to be relevant to you. However, DQ is one of those areas where AI/ML can really deliver substantial added value. Machine learning algorithms can be used to automatically identify data quality issues and correct them. For example, machine learning models can be trained to detect duplicates, correct spelling errors, and identify missing data. Next to more automated error resolution a lot of DQ applications are expanding DQ to provide insights by discovering relationships, patterns and trends.

We see both custombuild applications (Python and other open source libraries) and Data Quality platforms coming with embedded AI/ML functionality to bring DQ automation to the next level.

TREND #4. From patchwork to a fundamental & companywide capability

As Data Governance (DG) maturity in organizations grows, we also see that they address Data Quality as a fundamental integrated data capability. Instead of the so called one-off usage for one specific case (data migration, CRM, etc), a lot of companies make DQ a structural component that they can reuse continuously for all their data related initiatives. The benefit of this wider embedded approach is that it eases organizations to demonstrate DQ to be a profit vs a cost component.

TREND #5. From a technology to a business driven framework

As we mentioned in the previous trend and as maturity increases, we are also observing a shift in the approach from an it-driven towards a business-driven perspective. The main reason for this is that organizations require data quality to be seamlessly integrated into their business processes for optimal results.


Conclusion

In conclusion, data quality management is a critical component of data management, and there are many exciting trends and technologies emerging in this area. From data profiling to machine learning, organizations have many tools and techniques available to improve data quality and drive business growth.

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DEMYSTIFYING DARK DATA: THE UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

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As the world becomes increasingly digitised, organisations are generating more data than ever before. But did you know that up to 80% of that data remains untapped? This structured/unstructured, unprocessed data is known as dark data, and it has the potential to be a goldmine of insights for organisations.

What is Dark Data?

Dark data refers to data that organisations generate but don’t use. This data is typically unstructured and stored in various formats, such as emails, documents, images, videos, and social media posts. It’s often ignored because it is difficult to process and analyse, requiring advanced analytics tools and techniques to extract meaningful insights. However, with the right approach, dark data can be a valuable source of information that can help organisations make better decisions and gain a competitive advantage.

Where is Dark Data Found?

Dark data can be found in many areas of an organisation, including customer feedback, product reviews, employee emails, and social media mentions. By analysing this data, organisations can uncover hidden patterns and insights that can help them improve their products and services, enhance customer experiences, optimise operations, and reduce costs.

Dark Data in Action

Dark data can be used in virtually any industry to improve business outcomes. For example, an FMCG company can analyse customer reviews on social media and product forums to identify common complaints or issues. This data can be used to improve product design, customer service, and marketing strategies. Similarly, a healthcare organisation can analyse patient data to identify potential health risks, improve treatment plans, and optimise resource allocation.

Analysing dark data requires a different approach than traditional structured data analysis. Machine learning and artificial intelligence can be used to process large amounts of unstructured data and extract meaningful insights. This technology can be used to categorise data, identify patterns and anomalies, and extract sentiment from text and other data.

How to Leverage Dark Data?

To leverage dark data effectively, organisations need to establish a data strategy that includes data governance, data quality, and data privacy. They need to ensure that the data they collect is accurate, complete, and secure, and that they comply with regulatory requirements. Additionally, organisations need to invest in the right tools and technologies to extract insights from dark data.

There definitely some challenges with dark data is to extract valuable insights from it, but there are strategies you can use to put it in action:

  1. Identify your goals: Before you begin to analyze your dark data, it is essential to identify your business goals. Understanding what you want to achieve will help you determine what data to focus on and what insights you need to extract.
  2. Collaborate across teams: Dark data is often spread across different departments within an organization. Collaboration across teams can help you identify opportunities for using this data and uncover insights that might have been missed.
  3. Make your data consumable: Once you have identified the data you need, the next step is to make it available. This doesn’t mean that you need move your data in a single location as there are plenty efficient architectures to prevent data duplication. Making your data available in an agile and flexible way, will enable you to process and analyze it more efficiently.
  4. Use data analytics & AI/ML: The right tools can help you mine valuable insights from your dark data. There are various tools available, from simple data visualization software to sophisticated machine learning algorithms.
  5. Implement data governance: Finally, it is essential to have proper data governance in place to ensure that your dark data is used appropriately. This includes establishing data quality standards, data retention policies, and data security protocols.

Conclusion

Dark data represents a vast untapped resource for organisations seeking to gain a competitive advantage. By analysing this data, organisations can uncover valuable insights that can help them make better decisions and improve their operations. With the right strategies and technology in place, organisations can demystify dark data and unlock its full potential. It’s time to start exploring the dark data lurking within your organisation and turn it into a competitive advantage.

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THE LINK BETWEEN ESG AND DATA: TRANSPARANCY FUELED BY MEASUREMENT & REPORTING

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In recent years, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has become a buzzword in the corporate world. Investors and stakeholders are increasingly concerned with a company’s commitment to sustainability, social responsibility, and ethical practices. As a result, many companies are now incorporating ESG factors into their decision-making processes. But what is the link between ESG and data? In this blog, we explore how data plays a critical role in ESG transparancy.

Tracking ESG Factors with Data

Firstly, it’s essential to understand that ESG encompasses a wide range of factors, from environmental impact to labor practices to corporate governance. Companies must be able to track and measure these factors accurately to report on their ESG performance. This is where data comes in. By collecting and analyzing data, companies can gain insights into their ESG performance and identify areas for improvement.

Using Data to Report on ESG Performance

For example, an organization may collect data on its carbon emissions, water usage, and waste generation to assess its environmental impact. It may also collect data on employee turnover, diversity, and working conditions to assess its social impact. Finally, it may collect data on board composition, executive compensation, and shareholder rights to assess its governance practices. Once a company has collected this data, it can use it to report on its ESG performance.

The Importance of Data for Benchmarking ESG Performance

Reporting is an essential part of ESG because it allows investors and stakeholders to evaluate a company’s ESG practices and make informed decisions. ESG reporting typically involves disclosing data on a range of metrics, such as carbon emissions, employee diversity, and board diversity. Data is also crucial for benchmarking ESG performance. Companies can compare their performance against industry peers and ESG standards to identify areas for improvement.

Benchmark Data for ESG Investing

This benchmarking process often involves the use of ESG ratings and rankings, which are based on data collected from multiple sources. By using these ratings, companies can identify areas where they may be falling behind their peers and take steps to improve their ESG practices. Finally, data is critical for ESG investing. ESG investors use data to identify companies that are committed to sustainability, social responsibility, and ethical practices. They often look for companies with strong ESG ratings, which are based on data collected from multiple sources. By using data to identify these companies, ESG investors can make informed investment decisions that align with their values.

Conclusion

In conclusion, data plays a critical role in ESG. Companies must collect and analyze data to measure and report on their ESG performance accurately. Data is also crucial for benchmarking ESG performance and for ESG investing. As ESG continues to grow in importance, companies that prioritize data collection and analysis will be better equipped to meet investor and stakeholder expectations.



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THE VITAL ROLE OF DATA SHARING AGREEMENTS AND CONTRACTS IN ENSURING SAFE & RESPONSIBLE DATA EXCHANGE

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What Are Data Sharing Agreements & Contracts?

Data sharing agreements and contracts are essentially documents that outline the terms and conditions of sharing data between two or more parties. These agreements are important to ensure that data is shared in a safe and responsible manner, and that all parties involved understand their rights and obligations.


Key Elements



Data sharing agreements typically include the following elements:

  • Purpose of data sharing: The reason why the data is being shared and how it will be used.
  • Data to be shared: The type of data that will be shared, including any restrictions or limitations.
  • Data security and privacy: The measures that will be taken to protect the data and ensure its privacy.
  • Data ownership and control: The ownership and control of the data, including any intellectual property rights.
  • Data retention and disposal: The length of time that the data will be retained and how it will be disposed of.
  • Liability and indemnification: The responsibilities and liabilities of each party involved in the data sharing, and any indemnification clauses.
  • Dispute resolution: The process for resolving any disputes that may arise during the data sharing process.

To Conclude

Data sharing agreements and contracts are important to ensure that data is shared in a responsible and safe manner, and that all parties involved understand their rights and obligations. They help to establish trust and transparency between parties, and can help to prevent legal and financial consequences that may arise from data breaches or misuse.

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SAP DATASPHERE: GAME-CHANGING LEAP WITH COLLIBRA, CONFLUENT, DATABRICKS & DATAROBOT PARTNERSHIPS

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What is the SAP Datasphere announcement all about?

SAP has unveiled the SAP Datasphere solution, the latest iteration of its data management portfolio that simplifies customer access to business-ready data across their data landscape. In addition, SAP has formed strategic partnerships with leading data and AI companies such as Collibra, Confluent, Databricks and DataRobot to enrich the SAP Datasphere and help organizations develop a unified data architecture that securely combines SAP and non-SAP data.


What is SAP Datasphere?

SAP Datasphere is a comprehensive data service that delivers seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data and is in essence the next generation of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. SAP has kept all the capabilities of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and added newly available data integration, data cataloging, and semantic modeling features, which we will continue to build on in the future. More info on the official SAP Datasphere solution page.



Why does this matter to you?

The announcement is significant because it eliminates the complexity associated with accessing and using data from disparate systems and locations, spanning cloud providers, data vendors, and on-premise systems. Customers have traditionally had to extract data from original sources and export it to a central location, losing critical business context along the way and needing dedicated IT projects and manual effort to recapture it. With SAP Datasphere, customers can create a business data fabric architecture that quickly delivers meaningful data with the business context and logic intact, thereby eliminating the hidden data tax.

As a solution partner in this ecosystem, we are excited about the collaboration and the added value it provides:

  • With Collibra SAP customers can deliver an end-to-end view of a modern data stack across both SAP and non-SAP systems, enabling them to deliver accurate and trusted data for every use, every user, and across every source.
  • Confluent and SAP are working together to make it easier than ever to connect SAP software data to external data with Confluent in real-time to power meaningful customer experiences and business operations.
  • Databricks and SAP share a vision to simplify analytics and AI with a unified data lakehouse, enabling them to share data while preserving critical business context.
  • DataRobot and SAP’s joint customers can now also leverage machine learning models trained on their business data with speed and scale to see value faster, using the SAP Datasphere as the foundation layer.

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TO CURE OR TO OBSERVE? HOW DATA OBSERVABILITY DIFFERS FROM DATA CURATION

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In the world of data management, there are many terms and concepts that can be confusing. Two such concepts are data observability and data curation. While both are important for ensuring data accuracy and reliability, they have distinct differences. In this article, we will explore the key differences between data observability and data curation.

What is Data Observability?

Data observability refers to the ability to monitor and understand the behavior of data in real-time. It is the process of tracking, collecting, and analyzing data to identify any anomalies or issues. Data observability is often used in the context of monitoring data pipelines, where it can be used to identify issues such as data loss, data corruption, or unexpected changes in data patterns.

Data observability relies on metrics, logs, and other data sources to provide visibility into the behavior of data. By analyzing this data, it is possible to identify patterns and trends that can be used to optimize data pipelines and improve data quality.

What is Data Curation?

Data curation, on the other hand, refers to the process of managing and maintaining data over its entire lifecycle. It is the process of collecting, organizing, and managing data to ensure its accuracy, completeness, and reliability. Data curation involves tasks such as data cleaning, data validation, and data enrichment.

Data curation is essential for ensuring that data is accurate and reliable. It involves the use of automated tools and manual processes to ensure that data is properly labeled, formatted, and stored. Data curation is particularly important for organizations that rely heavily on data analytics, as inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to faulty insights and poor decision-making.

Key Differences Between Data Observability and Data Curation

While data observability and data curation share some similarities, there are key differences between the two concepts. The main differences are as follows:

  • Focus: Data observability focuses on monitoring data in real-time, while data curation focuses on managing data over its entire lifecycle.

  • Purpose: Data observability is used to identify and troubleshoot issues in data pipelines, while data curation is used to ensure data accuracy and reliability.

  • Approach: Data observability relies on monitoring tools and real-time analysis, while data curation relies on automated tools and manual processes.

Conclusion

In summary, data observability and data curation are two important concepts in the world of data management. While they share some similarities, they have distinct differences. Data observability is focused on real-time monitoring and troubleshooting, while data curation is focused on ensuring data accuracy and reliability over its entire lifecycle. Both concepts are important for ensuring that data is accurate, reliable, and useful for making informed decisions.

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COLLIBRA DATA CITIZENS 22 – INNOVATIONS TO SIMPLIFY AND SCALE DATA INTELLIGENCE ACROSS ORGANIZATIONS WITH RICH USER EXPERIENCES

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Collibra has introduced a range of new innovations at the Data Citizens ’22 conference, aimed at making data intelligence easier and more accessible to users.

Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud has introduced various advancements to improve search, collaboration, business process automation, and analytics capabilities. Additionally, it has also launched new products to provide data access governance and enhance data quality and observability in the cloud. Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud merges an enterprise-level data catalog, data lineage, adaptable governance, uninterrupted quality, and in-built data privacy to deliver a comprehensive solution.

Let’s have a look at the new announced functionality:

Simple and Rich Experience is the key message

Marketplace

Frequently, teams face difficulty in locating dependable data for their use. With the introduction of the Collibra Data Marketplace, this task has become simpler and quicker than ever before. Teams can now access pre-selected and sanctioned data through this platform, enabling them to make informed decisions with greater confidence and reliability. By leveraging the capabilities of the Collibra metadata graph, the Data Marketplace facilitates the swift and effortless search, comprehension, and collaboration with data within the Collibra Data Catalog, akin to performing a speedy Google search.

Usage analytics

To encourage data literacy and encourage user engagement, it’s important to have a clear understanding of user behavior within any data intelligence platform. The Usage Analytics dashboard is a new feature that offers organizations real-time, useful insights into which domains, communities, and assets are being used most frequently by users, allowing teams to monitor adoption rates and take steps to optimize their data intelligence investments.

Homepage

Creating a user-friendly experience that allows users to quickly and easily find what they need is crucial. The revamped Collibra homepage offers a streamlined and personalized experience, featuring insights, links, widgets, and recommended datasets based on a user’s browsing history or popular items. This consistent and intuitive design ensures that users can navigate the platform seamlessly, providing a hassle-free experience every time they log into Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud.

Workflow designer

Data teams often find manual rules and processes to be challenging and prone to errors. Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud’s Workflow Designer, which is now in beta, addresses this issue by enabling teams to work together to develop and utilize new workflows to automate business processes. The Workflow Designer can be accessed within the Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud and now has a new App Model view, allowing users to quickly define, validate, and deploy a set of processes or forms to simplify tasks.

 

Improved performance, scalability, and security

Collibra Protect

Collibra Protect is a solution that offers smart data controls, allowing organizations to efficiently identify, describe, and safeguard data across various cloud platforms. Collibra has collaborated with Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, to offer this new integration that enables data stewards to define and execute data protection policies without any coding in just a matter of minutes. By using Collibra Protect, organizations gain greater visibility into the usage of sensitive and protected data, and when paired with data classification, it helps them protect data and comply with regulations at scale.

Data Quality & Observability in the Cloud

Collibra’s latest version of Data Quality & Observability provides enhanced scalability, agility, and security to streamline data quality operations across multiple cloud platforms. With the flexibility to deploy this solution in any cloud environment, organizations can reduce their IT overhead, receive real-time updates, and easily adjust their scaling to align with business requirements.

Data Quality Pushdown for Snowflake 

The new feature of Data Quality Pushdown for Snowflake empowers organizations to execute data quality operations within Snowflake. With this offering, organizations can leverage the advantages of cloud-based data quality management without the added concern of egress charges and reliance on Spark compute.

New Integrations

Nowadays, almost 77% of organizations are integrating up to five diverse types of data in pipelines, and up to 10 different types of data storage or management technologies. Collibra is pleased to collaborate with top technology organizations worldwide to provide reliable data across a larger number of sources for all users. With new integrations currently in beta, mutual Collibra customers utilizing Snowflake, Azure Data Factory, and Google Cloud Storage can acquire complete visibility into cloud data assets from source to destination and offer trustworthy data to all users throughout the organization.

 

Some of this functionality was announced as beta and is available to a number of existing customers for testing purposes.



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THE MARKETING DATA JUNGLE

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Customer & household profiling, personalization, journey analysis, segmentation, funnel analytics, acquisition & conversion metrics, predictive analytics & forecasting, …  The marketing goal to deliver a trustworthy and complete insight in the customer across different channels can be quiet difficult to accomplish.

A substantial amount of marketing departments have chosen to rely on a mix of platforms going from CEM/CXM, CDP, CRM, eCommerce, Customer Service, Contact Center, Marketing Automation to Marketing Analytics. A lot of these platforms are best of breed and come from a diverse number of vendors who are leader in their specific market segment. Internal custom build solutions (Microsoft Excel, homebrew data environments, …) always complete this type of setup.

78% According to a Forrester study, although 78% of marketers claim that a data-driven marketing strategy is crucial, as many as 70% of them admit they have poor quality and inconsistent data.


The challenges

Creating a 360° customer view across this diverse landscape is not a walk in the park. All of these marketing platforms do provide added value but are basically separate silos. All of these environments use different data and the data that they have in common, is typically used in a different way. If you need to join all these pieces together, you need some magical super glue.  Reality is that none of the marketing platform vendors actually have this in house.

Another point of attention is your data scope. We don’t need to explain you that customer experience is the hot thing in marketing nowadays. However marketeers need to do much more than just analyze customer experience data in order to create real customer insight.

Creating insight also requires that the data that you analyze goes beyond the traditional customer data domain. Combining customer data with i.e. the proper product/service, supplier, financial, … data is rather fundamental for this type of exercises. This type of extended data domains is usually lacking or the required detail level is not present in one particular platform.

38% Recent research from  KPMG and Forrester Consulting shows that 38% of marketers claimed they have a high level of confidence in their data and analytics that drives their customer insights. That’s said, only a third of them seem to trust the analytics they generate from their business operations.


The foundations

Regardless of the mix of marketing platforms, many marketing leaders don’t succeed in taking full advantage of all their data. As a logical result they also fail to make a real impact with their data driven marketing initiatives. The underlying reason for this issue is that many marketing organizations lack a number of crucial data management building blocks that allow them to break out of these typical martech silos. The most important data capabilities that you should take into account are:

 

Capability

Description

Master Data Management (aka MDM)

Creating a single view or so called golden record is the essence of Master Data Management. This allows you to make sure that a customer, product, etc is consistent across different applications.

 

Business Glossary

Having the correct terms & definitions might seem trivial but reality is that in the majority of the organizations noise on the line is reality. However having crystal clear terms and definitions is a basic requirement to have all stakeholders manage the data in the same way and prevent conflicts and waste down the data supply chain.

 

Data Catalog

Imagine Google-like functionality to search through your data assets. Find out what data you have, what’s the origin, how and where it is being used.

 

Data Quality

The why of proper data quality is obvious for any data consuming organization. If you have disconnected data landscape, data quality is even more important because it also facilitates the automatic match & merge glue exercise that you put in place to come to a common view on your data assets.

 

Data Virtualization

Getting real-time access to your data in an ad hoc and dynamic way is one of the missing pieces to get to your 360° view in time and budget. Forgot about traditional consumer headaches such as long waiting times, misunderstood requests, lack of agility, etc.

 

 

We intentionally use the term capability because this isn’t a IT story. All of these capabilities have a people, process and technology aspect and all of them should be driven by the business stakeholders. IT and technology is facilitating.


The results

If you manage to put in place the described data management capabilities you basically get in control. Your organization can find, understand and make data useful. You improve the efficiency of your people and processes, and reduce your data compliance risks. The benefits in a nutshell:

  1. Get full visibility of your data landscape by making data available and easily accessible across your organization. Deliver trusted data with documented definitions and certified data assets, so users feel confident using the data. Take back control using an approach that delivers everything you need to ensure data is accurate, consistent, complete and discoverable.
  2. Increase efficiency of your people and processes. Improve data transparency by establishing one enterprise-wide repository of assets, so every user can easily understand and discover data relevant to them. Increase efficiency using workflows to automate processes, helping improve collaboration and speed of task completion. Quickly understand your data’s history with automated business and technical lineage that help you clearly see how data transforms and flows from system to system and source to report.
  3. Reduce data and compliance risks. Mitigate compliance risk setting up data policies to control data retention and usage that can be applied across the organization, helping you meet your data compliance requirements. Reduce data risk by building and maintaining a business glossary of approved terms and definitions, helping ensure clarity and consistency of data assets for all users.

42% of data-driven marketers say their current technology in place is out of date and insufficient to help them do their jobs. Walker Sands Communications State of Marketing Technology report.



Conclusion

The data you need to be successful with your marketing efforts is there. You just have to transform it into useable data so that you can get accurate insights to make better decisions. The key in all of this is getting rid of your marketing platform silos by making sure that you have the proper data foundations in place. The data foundations to speed up and extend the capabilities of your datadriven marketing initiatives.


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CHANGE & DATA GOVERNANCE – TAKE A LEAP FORWARD

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A successful data governance initiative is based on properly managing the People, Process, Data & Technology square. The most important element of these four is undoubtedly People. The reason for that is that at the end it boils down to people in your organization to act in a new business environment. This always implies change so make sure that you have an enabling framework for managing also the people side of change. Prepare, support and equip individuals at different levels in your organization to drive change and data governance success.

Change & the critical ingredient for data governance success.


Change is crucial in the success or failure of a data governance initiative for two reasons:

1First of all you should realize that with data governance you are going to tilt an organization. What we mean by this is that the situation before data governance is usually a silo-oriented organization. Individual employees, teams, departments, etc are the exclusive owner of their systems and associated data. With the implementation of data governance you will tilt that typical vertical data approach and align data flows with business processes that also run horizontally through an entire organization. This means that you need to help the organization to arrive at an environment where the data sharing & collaboration concept  is the new normal.

2The second important reason is the so-called data governance heartbeat. What we see in many organizations is that there is a lot of enthusiasm at the start of a program. However, without the necessary framework, read also a change management plan, you run the fundamental risk that such an initiative will eventually die a silent death. People lose interest, no longer feel involved, no longer see the point of it. From that perspective, it is necessary to create a framework that keeps data governance’s heart beating.

How to approach change?


Change goes beyond training & communication. To facilitate the necessary changes, ChangeLab and Datalumen designed the ADKAR-based LEAP approach. LEAP is an acronym that stands for Learn, Envision, Apply & Poll. Each of these important steps help realize successful and lasting change.

• Organizational culture and risk mitigation culture; “Readiness” for change

• Scope and type of the (sub)projects

• Timing and path for the change

• Set up the change team

• Stakeholder assessment & impact analysis (personnel analysis)

• Sponsorship analysis

• Risk assessment



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