by Angela Guess
Julie Hunt recently argued that combining different data governance processes can help improve any business. She writes, “Data governance can be seen as formalized policies, practices and processes set up to manage voluminous data assets across enterprises. Data governance also sits on an important growing convergence that encompasses multiple, and frequently separate, disciplines: data quality / data integration, master data management (MDM), business process management (BPM), business intelligence (BI) and analytics. The solutions surrounding the management of information, data and intelligence are emerging from artificial silos to acknowledge the greater overlap and interrelationships of these technologies and practices. Deliberate initiatives to tighten up the convergence of these solution spaces will not only improve the better overall functioning of all of these solutions but will help both IT and Business users see how it all works together. A greatly beneficial result should be the elimination of duplicate demands on business users and IT for implementing and managing these systems.”
Hunt quotes Rob Karel, saying, “Data governance is not – and should never have been – about the data… It’s all about business process.” Hunt adds that “business process is about optimizing the Business. The current state of the increasing interrelationships between Data Governance, MDM, BPM, BI / Analytics (as well as DQ, DI) is also the story of the teaming up of Business users and IT as collaborative partners in doing the work that help businesses meet strategic goals, bring value to company customers, add to competitiveness. Both sides of the story must start with the business problems and the jobs to be done, plus the desired outcomes and benefits. Then decisions must be made regarding the role to be played by the software solutions to be implemented. Starting with the business also encourages the exploration and creation of the specific business cases that reflect needs and requirements. With such business cases defined, monitoring outcomes of data governance, BPM, BI, etc., should have clear basis.”
