by Angela Guess
A recent article takes a look at the practices of data governance and master data management and clears up some misunderstandings about the two. It begins, “The gray area between DG and MDM is real and (artificially) exists due to a lack of definition, maturity, or understanding within an organization. Considering that methodologies for MDM and DG have many variances, it would be a challenge to hit on every possible permutation of DG and MDM to define the dividing lines. Doing so would make for a long and painful read and probably be published under a self-help genre for curing insomnia. Instead, let’s generalize on the goals of each and try to find that utopian business model where there is complete harmony.”
The article continues, “Data Governance organizations are business entities that define and manage the most vital corporate asset, business information. Governance organizations may vary in participation and influence, but they share common goals of corporate data policy definition, policy enforcement, and communication. DG initiatives arise from self-awareness amongst the business leadership that they create and own information and that IT serves as its librarian. Throughout the business are pockets of information, some self-contained within a single business process and some shared across many.”
photo credit: Gamma-Ray Productions
