Data Governance is an oft-cited, oft-abused goal.
Essentially, it is the process of governing a strategy for the acquisition and distribution of data.
It encompasses every aspect of many software products.
Most organizations do it wrong.
* Every time you distribute data
* Data endpoint is covered
Common ways people break:
* Distribute data in ad-hoc means
* Through Excel or Google spreadsheets
* Through Marketing Emails
* On web APIs
* On web pages and applications
* With database connections
* Through shared files
Data Governance means getting a handle on what you are distributing.
It means saying no to common means of distributed data, especially shared spread-sheets.
How do you get a handle on your data?
Identify and document your endpoints
Classify endpoints and secure appropriately
Ensure a single source of truth
Establish data dictionaries
Behaviors to avoid
Creating authoritative data outside the core data system (SQL Database)
Creating ad-hoc roles and keys to access points
Distributing code to customers that modify the data outside of core processes