How to Succeed in Standing Up Your Data Governance Office: Data Governance is a Go! Now What?

Why Data Governance? Where do you start? How do you know what to do first, to be sure that you build a strong internal brand for this work and that you’re building something that is going to last? How do you instill confidence in the executives relying on you that you are the best person for the job and that this investment is going to pay off the way it was promised in the business case?

Data Governance allows your organization to exercise authority and control over the management of data assets by maintaining and enforcing enterprise data standards. Standing up your Data Governance Office is an important step in tackling data cleanliness. It saves time when searching for, preparing, and explaining data as well as reacting to data quality issues and security breaches. Additionally, an effective Data Governance strategy keeps innovative technology practices (ML, AI) within reach. Unfortunately, Data Governance is not easy and it’s especially difficult at the start because it can mean so many different things to so many different people.

You must first get the Data Governance initiative approved and funded and that isn’t easy. You’ll likely have multiple meetings and discussions to explain the value that data governance could bring to the organization and why it is so badly needed. You’ll spend many hours trying to figure out exactly who to talk to and when and how to make sure you can ride the right political winds and momentum in the organization. You may have to work with or inherit work performed by a consulting partner or vendor. You might be thinking about the business case that was approved and trying to determine what parts apply to the upcoming Data Governance effort.

Once all of this is presented, only then will your organization determine the need for Data Governance. Once the need is defined, now you must figure out how to solve it. In this webinar. we will discuss the 6-week effort that will get you to the right place on the mountain to be ready to push for the top. And to do that, you must get everyone on the same page.

Unfortunately, not everyone is going to understand what data governance means and how it applies to them. That is part of what you need to work towards.

• Where do I start?
• What do I tackle first?
• How do I form the Data Governance Council?
• Who are the Data Stewards and Custodians going to be?
• What systems will be in scope?
• What data problems do we tackle first?
• Do we have the technologies we’re going to need?
• How do I work with IT?
• How do I work with Finance or Operations for that matter?
• How do I show value from month to month?
• How will the organization accept and perceive Data Governance?
• What policies and processes are important?
• How will I enforce them?
• How will I get everything done with a limited budget or resources?
• How can I create a culture of respect for data and grow Data Citizens?
• How do I increase data literacy to even understand what I’m talking about?


In this video, we share a plan with you, a plan that has been tested multiple times and proven to be successful. The goal is to help you feel confident by the end of this hour and provide you with a plan that will work for you. Getting started is the hardest part. Once you successfully get through the first 6 weeks, then you’ll have more confidence, more executive buy-in and more cultural support that will help sustain you on this journey. Alissa Schneider will distill the noise of getting started by:

• Giving practical advice on starting a new department, the DGO
• Prioritizing the most impactful types of communication and the basic tools needed
• Sharing how to utilize a visual “scope map” of the organization with data domains, business units, and data types to maximize broad understanding
• Focusing on the business value and specific use cases that the creation of the DGO is meant to solve, not just the generic problems
• Drafting a roadmap for the year

For more information about the Sense Corp data governance practice, visit https://sensecorp.com/

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