by Angela Guess
Jim Harris has informed his readers, “I was recently discussing data governance best practices with Rob Karel, the well respected analyst at Forrester Research, and our conversation migrated to one of data governance’s biggest challenges – how to balance bureaucracy and business agility. So Rob and I thought it would be fun to tackle this dilemma in a Star Wars-themed debate across our individual blog platforms with Rob taking the position for Bureaucracy as the Empire and me taking the opposing position for Agility as the Rebellion. (Yes, the cliché is true, conversations between self-proclaimed data geeks tend to result in Star Wars or Star Trek parallels.)”
After noting that “this is meant to be a true debate format where Rob and I are intentionally arguing polar opposite positions with full knowledge that the reality is data governance success requires effectively balancing bureaucracy and agility,” Harris goes on to assume his role in the debate as the Rebellion: “Data governance requires the coordination of a complex combination of a myriad of factors, including executive sponsorship, funding, decision rights, arbitration of conflicting priorities, policy definition, policy implementation, data quality remediation, data stewardship, business process optimization, technology enablement, and, perhaps most notably, policy enforcement.”
Harris goes on, “When confronted by this phantom menace of complexity, many organizations believe that the only path to success must be command and control – institute a rigid bureaucracy to dictate policies, demand compliance, and dole out punishments. This approach to data governance often makes policy compliance feel like imperial rule, and policy enforcement feel like martial law. But beware. Bureaucracy, command, control – the Dark Side of Data Governance are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume your organization it will.”
Read more of Harris arguments for the Rebellion here, or take a look at what the Empire has to say about bureaucracy here.
