Analytical Diaries

Many organizations which have lived through data quality pains – really suffer from a data governance issue. And there are not many organizations in the large to global scale out there, that can claim not to have any data quality issues. So how fast can you, in the best of circumstances, really establish a working data governance, that i turn has a lasting positive effect on your data quality?

We have led many clients through the process of establishing a working data governance framework and what seems to be unique to most of them, is the lack of ownership for data items that are not directly linked to revenues, performance and success. While it is easy to nail down owners for clients, for profit-centers or for contracts, it is far more challenging to find the responsible person or organizational unit that owns a company’s more generic data items like organizational structure, product catalogue or business calendar. How can you go about these precious, little obstacles?

• One takes them all – the seemingly easiest way is to define one person or unit, that is responsible for all of these generic items – let’s call them shared data – and owns all of the quality responsibility for the same. In order to successfully incentivize that unit, you need to tie their overall objectives and performance into the more visible success measures, be that revenues, turn-over or client count. Only by instilling that direct link will you underline the importance of data quality for non-strategic (or generic) data objects.
• All take one – the opposite approach is to link one “community job” to each strategic data item, thus spreading out the maintenance and quality job for the shared data items to a number of well-liked and sought after objects. So whoever takes the client, has to take the business calendar along. Since every governing unit already has a direct revenue link, you don’t have to go through the additional exercise of installing a dedicated incentivation layer.

And how fast is this realistically implemented? I have seen global organizations setting up a new data governance and living the same within three months, including the build-up and usage of an entire master data management framework across three countries. And I also have seen medium sized firms taking two years and not getting the new data governance even settled and decided. So to my experience it’s mostly about the speed in which companies decide that also determines their ability to execute.

What do you think and what have you seen in your companies? Let us know…