by Angela Guess
Keesa Bond of the Database Journal has likened a lack of data governance to a toddler left alone near a cookie jar. She writes, “Once the child empties the jar, she may experience momentary happiness, not realizing the inevitable price of a tummy ache that will arrive later. In many respects, data is prone to suffer the same fate as that child. Data is received. It is housed in a database. It is foundational for running the business, so more data appears to be beneficial at first. It is only later that the ultimate lesson is evident because without data governance, there is an eventual price to pay. The penalty for lack of data governance however is more permanent and pervasive than a tummy ache. The negative consequences can vary the full gamut from merely annoying to facilitating the downfall of an organization.”
Bond continues, “If you are involved with data (and, in one way or another that is all of us), ask yourself if you have ever found an error in data (that will be almost everyone). Now imagine your singular negative data experience versus the overall potential of negative data experiences. Given the global volume of data out there, if even 10% of it is not being managed by a mature data governance approach, then how can data ever be trusted? In reality, that 10% figure is likely very low. There are so few organizations with effective data governance strategies; the overall percentage of data that is not being governed is probably high.”
