by Angela Guess
Mark Brunelli recently related five data governance best practices originally shared by users of IBM’s data governance solutions. The first practice is to “Keep it realistic — especially in the beginning.” Brunelli writes, “Getting various departments within an organization on board with a data governance initiative takes time and patience, according to Frank Sheridan, associate vice president of marketing and information management at the Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide. Organizations should begin the process by building a ‘coalition of the willing’ — representatives from each department who recognize the value of data governance and want to help, Sheridan said.”
Brunelli continues, “But as those representatives begin meeting to discuss and agree upon definitions of business terms, there are bound to be setbacks. Different departments have their own way of doing things and change rarely comes easily. Sheridan said the best way to deal with setbacks and disagreements — particularly in the beginning — is to take them in stride and continue moving gradually forward until agreements can be reached. ‘You need to be a little bit more flexible in terms of being perfect every time we have [those] interactions and share that information,’ Sheridan said.”
Read the next four practices here.
