Data Governance is a hot topic of discussion in most organization’s data management journeys.

While some organizations are still struggling with implementing Data Governance, most have not really operationalized the same.

The acceptance and ownership of Data Governance runs low with business users as does the difficulty in establishing a ROI for programs to give it a push for adoption and implementation.

However, with the introduction of new regulations and laws (EU AI Act), investor demand for better data management practices and the need to leverage data for business competitiveness and customer delight, Data Governance assumes a premier chair in the data management foundational base.

Business Leaders are now prioritizing Data Governance, especially with an increase regulatory oversight and penalties and the understanding that the real ROI from Data Governance arises post adoption and implementation.

Data Governance 2.0

Data Governance will now be an enterprise-wide initiative, instead of a silo business unit program. Senior Leadership support and sponsorship will enable a new age of thrust towards Data Governance, bringing in the new 2.0 version of the same. Business users/employees’ active participation in implementing Data Governance will bring in the change in ownership and accountability to manage all its activities and tasks. Policies around Data access and democratization, controls for usage and data security and protection.

The Change.

Tied to Strategic Business Objectives – Data Governance will be closely tied to the organization’s strategic goals and priorities. It will cease to be just an IT initiative, with guiding & privacy principles for AI, list, or risks & mitigation strategy for the same and usage of data to bring in positive business impact on critical balance sheet KPIs. 

New Frameworks will emerge. The focus will move from just policies, processes, procedures, and standards, to how data will be used and leveraged, that is, accountability, ownership and access with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and type of data access. While the fundamental coverage of Data Governance will not change, precise accountability and ownership will create a circle of influence and support that will propel and impact all governance activities.

Structure / Organizations – CDOs will explore new models of organization structures and models for Data Governance, with new roles staffing the organization chart.

Recently, the Data Management world has witnessed a takeover by the Data Products concept. With surveys stating that a product mindset towards data helps improve data quality, organizations must decentralize Data Governance activities, leading to a Federated structure. More organizations have embarked on the mission to bring in this change, thus resulting in active business participation and ownership and an expansion of data access and democratization. A critical component of the framework will be the ethical arm which will provide a competitive differentiator to the organization.

The Governance structures will evolve with maturity, catering to varying levels of maturity across the organization thus bringing in an era of flexible governance models.

Change Management activities and Data Literacy will rule with such changes and the evolution of Data Governance structures to embed Data Governance within an organization. Technology like AI will be used to help implement and monitor data governance policies and activities. The path towards Data Governance 2.0 will be highly dependent on technology, which will play a critical role of an enabler.

New Roles – new roles will emerge, like a CDLO (Chief Data Literacy Officer), IT Steward (to manage technical data stewardship), AI Steward (will use AI to manage various activities and deliver and monitor results), SME Steward to name a few. Roles will be customized as per the needs of the organizations to provide support at the point of usage. A few roles will be transitionary in nature and will cease to exist as the Data Governance journey matures over time. Data Stewardship will be heavily supported by AI ML and advanced algorithms in all activities, especially at the tactical/operational levels.

Technology – tools and technology that will help increase automation of activities of Data Governance (like processes, monitoring, operational tasks) and visibility and management of data will be a vital component of the technology stack. AI & ML will rule the roost to automate processes and activities, enabling a streamlined approach to oversee the copious amounts of data that organizations will churn and use. Data Quality will improve with reduced data anomalies leading to better use of data for business decisions and impact. Technology will lead to the transformation to the new world of Data Governance.

Data Governance as a Service – availability skilled resources are pre-requisite for Data Governance 2.0. And the skill shortage will give rise to the new concept of Data Governance as a service - Organizations will foray into a new world of Data Governance, where certain governance activities will be outsourced, like a technology platform, data storage with a cloud-based platform, conducting data observability, data governance trainings (including Change Management and Data Literacy), Data audits , Data Classification and mapping and others.

In conclusion

Leadership focus and support, along with a stress on business impact will help bring in the change for Data Governance. It will encompass both a top down and bottoms up approach, leveraging technology and new-age structures, to bring in ownership and accountability. The key propellants will be the strategic priorities with analytics playing a lead role in bringing in the business impact. Equal participation from business and IT will bring in the operational agility and automation and create an innovative and collaborated Data Governance organization that will set the pace for an evolution in the data management journey.