There is a new way of safekeeping an enterprise’s data and it is called data governance. It is now an emerging discipline that possessed evolving definition. This includes data management, convergence of data quality, risk management and business process management, all of which surrounds the data handling in an organization. Through this discipline, the organization manages to have complete control over the methods and processes that are used by their data handlers. So, data governance is very important to a company.
Aside from what is mentioned already, data governance or DG to many organizations, is the over-all management of the data used in an enterprise which includes its availability, integrity, usability and security. An enterprise may say that what they have is a sound program for data governance when they will go the extra mile and have a governing council or governing body that will oversee the program, a set of procedures that is well-defined as well as a clear cut plan to execute the said procedures.
Another meaning of data governance is the placing into effect of the finest controls and practices on the organizations data assets. DG in an organization must both be proactive and reactive. A proactive DG should have their new data elements imbibed with best practice along also with the new projects from the DG itself and those initiated by the enterprise. Doe the data governance to become reactive, it is when trouble comes up in connection with the data or a new law or rules are initiated and introduced in an organizational setting.
When putting up a program for data governance in your enterprise, the initial thing to be done is designate a data custodian. A policy will define who will be the accountable person which will correspond to the certain aspects or portions of the data, including its accessibility, updates, accuracy, completeness and consistency.
In a data governance, it is also important that basic processes are well-defined which includes how the data is kept, documented, backed-up and safeguarded from possible mishaps, burglary and assault. the person in-charge of the data assets should abide by the enterprise’s set of rules and standards. Finally, a procedure for audit and control processes and procedures in relation to data governance should also be set up in order that compliance with government regulations are not impinged.
To sum it up, DG encompasses the enterprise’ people, information technology and processes that is required to be able to create a highly consistent and proper handling of data all across the organization to achieve increased confidence and consistency in decision making, improve the security of data, maximize profit potential of data, avoid regulatory fines and assign accountability for the quality of information.