Data Governance Blog

Governance and Innovation – Complimentary or Contradictory

On LinkedIn, the following question was posted by Asad Quraishi in the IT Governance Group discussions.

Does IT governance promote innovation?

There’s enough compelling research demonstrating the value of governance to the bottom line. This ranges from studies showing that firms using IT governance best practices are 20% more profitable than their peers to showing that firms with both aligned IT-business strategies and effective IT practices have a 3-year compound annual revenue growth 35% above the average.

What about innovation? Does anyone know of a study that shows boosted IT-related innovation in firms with good governance practices? This can include business process innovation. Does anyone have specific examples?

My answer:

Read more »

How to Govern Data – A Simple Method to Implement Governance

Some time ago, while working with a large data warehouse, I formulated a simple method to govern data. The method was introduced as part of our Basel II work and was required by our Basel II Risk Management Policy. Subsequently as we were validating our plans for a data governance program, it was reviewed and subsequently endorsed by Gwen Thomas of the Data Governance Institute. She loved the idea so much that she presented it at the 2008 DAMA conference. This simple method is a Data Governance Agreement. Read more »

Where to Govern Data – Control Points in Information Flows

My last entry suggested that data governance is not a new problem. While exploring data governance, we are revisiting the issues encountered as society built out roads, and developed modern manufacturing processes. The only difference is what we are governing this time is data content instead of a physical thing. With that in mind, it makes sense is to learn from the past and to govern at control points, or natural points of convergences. Read more »