What Is Data Governance (DG)?
If you've ever had a boss, you know how painful it is to have someone else tell you what to do. You have ideas about how things should be done, and that's fine—until your boss tells you everything you're doing is wrong. Then they give you a whole bunch of reasons why the thing they want is the right way to go instead. Then they make it clear that they can't be proven wrong. Then they expect you to roll over and agree with them no matter what. Data governance (DG) is like that—but even more so. As DG isn't just a person—it's an entire department of people who work together to ensure your company's information is safe and secure but accessible enough for everyone who needs access to it (and not just for themselves). They get together with everyone in the company who needs data access and figure out what everyone needs from each other so that all these people can work together without stepping on each other's toes too much or getting into trouble with legal issues because someone didn't ask permission first before sharing information. The basic information that generates the data is the only thing more important than data to a business or organization. While its strength is tempting to think that you can store all your data in one giant bucket and call it a day, that's not how it works. Each information type needs unique characteristics and processes for storage, analysis, processing, and sharing. It's hard to imagine a business doing well without a data governance plan. If you think about it, that's like saying: "I'm not going to eat this hamburger because I don't want to get fat." Data governance is the procedure of ensuring that data is used appropriately and effectively. It's a way of keeping track of your company's knowledge and how it uses it. Without data governance, companies can make bad decisions based on the wrong information—or worse yet, they could use good information but make bad decisions based on it. In other words: Data governance keeps us from making mistakes!
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