What is Data Governance?

Data governance is the the confluence of the physical organization, conceptual framework and operational practices that enable the creation, distribution and maintenance of high quality data.

We'll break down each of the major considerations of data governance for further discussion below:

• Physical organization:
• This is the topic that comes most often to mind when the term 'data governance' is mentioned.  Executives and consultants alike tend to address this aspect of data governance ahead of the other considerations.  Perhaps it is due to an intuitive grasp of the need to build an organization around the discipline.  On the other hand, perhaps it represents an opportunity to further consolidate power and extend a fiefdom - I'm not judging.  
• In either case, the canonical organization should break down into a tiered structure that represents the following (top-down organization)
• an Executive Steering Committee of key decision makers (from Business and IT) who can set strategic vision, challenge key decisions and adjudicate differences
• a Senior Executive (e.g. Chief Data Officer) with ownership of the program
• Data Stewards (Business) who will represent each of the key business areas/subject areas and serve as the advocate, subject matter expert and point of contact for governance decisions and ongoing processes
• Data Admins (IT) who will effect the decisions and initiatives of the governance process;  there are typically multiple Data Admins who will support the needs of each key business/subject area
• Aside from the the typical challenges related to ever-shifting priorities, executive commitment and political jockeying, establishing the governance organization is a relatively straight-forward process.  The key lies in getting senior buy-in and support of the initiative.  Without this support and mandate, the data governance effort is unlikely to succeed.
• Conceptual Framework
• Common gaps that are often found in nascent data governance programs are as follows: 
• the lack of a clear conceptual framework on which to identify the scope/boundaries of governance
• the need to formalize the related concepts/domains
• the establishment of key metrics as well as baseline for measurement (I'm emphasizing this last point as it is often neglected and given short-shrift but is a cornerstone to the conceptual framework as well as to the governance program as a whole - you cannot govern what you can't measure!)
• Operational Practices
• TBD...