Processes

Putting your policies into action

Processes

So, what do your data governance policies actually look like in action? To bring them to life, you’ll need to define your processes.

You’ll need the top two levels of the operating model pyramid working together—that’s the Core MDM Group and the DG Working Group (you’ll learn more about them in the Roles and Responsibilities section).

So, what do your data governance policies actually look like in action? To bring them to life, you’ll need to define your processes.

But, before we get into the nitty gritty of processes, you should know that there are two main approaches you can take:

Creation

This option involves building your processes from scratch. So, in the context of data or content, creating is all about generating entirely new datasets, articles, images or ideas without directly modifying or building upon existing ones.

Augmentation

This option is all about adding to, enhancing, or improving something that already exists. You’ll be increasing the value, functionality or quality of an existing entity without creating a new entity from scratch.

As you can probably tell from those descriptions, augmentation is usually the more efficient way, so it’s best to start here if you can.

Here’s what your current business processes should define:

How data flows through your business
How and when the right people get access to the right data
Who owns the data at various points in the process
What impact process “hand-offs” have on the data
What, where and when key decisions are made about data made within the process

Already have all these things covered by your current business processes? Then lucky you! You won’t have much work to do to meet your data governance needs.

But if not, do not fear. Here’s a handy list of the processes you’ll need:

4 quick tips for designing your data governance processes:

There should always be a trigger for starting the whole process, as well as each step in the process. It could be a request form, an email or just a certain time of the day.

Somebody needs to be the boss. An overall process manager needs to monitor progress and step in if there are problems or bottlenecks.

Somebody needs to be responsible for each action. If you’re not sure who the right person is, there should be an activity in the process for identifying the next person in the chain and transferring the process to them.

There needs to be a clear end point and outcome to the process. Don’t forget that if somebody has requested this process to run, then they may want to know when it’s complete and what the outcome was.