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Book of the Month: Holistic Data Governance 

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Welcome to February 2025’s “Book of the Month.” This time we’ll be reviewing the book “Holistic Data Governance Volume 1: The Guardrail Hierarchy” by David Kowalski

In this book, Kowalski successfully gives the reader a head start in building data governance at their organization – starting from a strategic vision, then moving into the foundational aspects of governance models, then finishing with operationalizing it all with policies, standards, and guardrails.  Throughout the book, Kowalski reminds the reader about the importance of fitting governance into organizational culture. David further rounds this out by providing the reader with general advice. For anyone starting a data governance initiative, this book serves as an excellent resource for direction and practical guidance. 

The first third of the book is dedicated to strategy. This gives the reader tools and advice on how to start a data governance initiative and align it to business objectives. Often, in the data governance space, folks have difficulty in getting business buy-in and the resources required to execute or maintain a functioning data governance program. This section of the book provides a lot of tools and engagement points to assist the reader in overcoming those challenges at their home organization.  Kowalski highlights “why we care” and “how we’ll get there.” Critically, throughout the book, Kowalski describes to the reader how to build guardrail documents. In this first part of the book, the guardrails provide a north star as the reader progresses through the book and in their journey to launching a successful data governance initiative.    

Moving into the governance arena, Kowalski gives the reader tools to integrate a data governance operating model with the organizational culture.  The book provides this context in every section, but it is of high importance here. The reader will see a head with gears icon as they read through the book, which provides context on different options regarding how to fit specific concepts into a local culture. When building an operating model, designing the organizational hierarchy of governance, and providing the rules of engagement, a strong cultural fit is paramount. Kowalski underscores this and supplies further guardrails to help the reader implement these principles effectively within their organization. 

In the last third of the book, we operationalize governance by implementing a strong policy framework. The book really shines in this area, giving the reader a strong sense of what makes a good robust policy that employees across an organization can follow. Not only are policies themselves guardrails, but Kowalski arms the reader with processes to create strong policies. Kowalski highlights that policy should be high-level, brief, and direct. To keep policies robust and long-lived, Kowalski recommends bringing specifics into standards documents, that can be updated over time while still achieving the same guiding principles in the main policy. This gives a lot of flexibility to a governance program, while still providing consistency to the organization. Kowalski finishes the section with tips on how to make the policy searchable, readable, and overall useful to the community within an organization. 

In conclusion, “Holistic Data Governance Volume 1: The Guardrail Hierarchy” equips readers with comprehensive tools and invaluable guidance to successfully implement data governance within their organizations. Dr. David Kowalski meticulously presents strategies, operational models, and policy tools that emphasize the integration of governance into the organizational culture. The detailed approach to creating and maintaining effective policies ensures that governance remains adaptable and robust over time. As this is labeled Volume 1, it tantalizes the data management community with the promise of more insightful explorations in future volumes. With this foundational work, Dr. Kowalski is indeed performing his magnum opus in the realm of data governance, setting a high standard for future discourse and practice. 

More About the Author 

David Kowalski, Ph.D., has spent his entire professional life showing organizations how best to manage and govern their data. David is currently President of MIDAS Advisory Services, a data management executive advisory firm based in Princeton, N.J. He has worked with data management executives at large and mid-sized corporations around the world to assess their data management practices and help devise strategies and policies to improve their efficiency, effectiveness, and reliability while mitigating risk exposure. An industry thought leader, David appears regularly at conferences across the country and is a very active contributing member of the Enterprise Data Management Council. He is the author of “Holistic Data Governance,” a series of books on the integration of data governance throughout an organization.