The Chronicles of Data Governance

The Chronicles of Data Governance by

if you want to govern, first you need to know what you re actually governing When you want to govern the first thing to sort out is who, what and where are the objects being governed. The initial picture of your information landscape might be bleak with a lot of grey areas and unknowns. Dark matter constitutes 85% of the known universe, and dark data does too! Semanta the most advanced, off-the-shelf BI portal on the market, will help you create the true information map of your enterprise. It is an ideal, business-oriented tool for drawing the map of your information landscape and identifying its features. Create a single access point for users to search for information. Load metadata from different sources and integrate them together in a single place. Build a passionate community around your information. Share your information landscape visually.

Draw the map of the territory you want to govern and share it Start with a crude outline of your systems, stakeholders and technologies. We live in an imperfect world with data lakes, swamps, brooks and information black markets - don t pretend they don t exist. Instead embrace them, enlist them and bring visibility into the jungle of applications and technologies you re surrounded by. You ll see that people appreciate it when you bring them something cool yet practical and useful. Use metadata connectors to harvest as much information about your data as possible, automatically. When you have a basic outline of your information landscape, identify a domain with low hanging fruit and define it in more detail. Draw an outline of your systems and applications. Define information domains and assign them to stewards and owners. Use metadata connectors to fill your Data Dictionary with content. Use metadata connectors to fill your Report Catalogue with content.

An outline remains just an empty vessel without content Answer three basic Data Governance questions about each information asset: Who owns it? What does it mean? Where can one access it? Assign business users to information assets and ask them to enrich the bare technical descriptions, captured by the metadata connectors, with real business meanings and definitions. In exchange, provide them with quick access to catalogues of your existing reports, tables and definitions. Demonstrate that it s worth their effort and that data governance has tangible results - getting hold of information takes less time, understanding reports becomes easier, the reuse of existing ones becomes simple. Use the Business Glossary to enrich technical definitions with business definitions. Link definitions together to indicate relationships and dependencies Assign stewards and owners to all your information assets. Define data quality rules, checks and publish quality statuses.

Mind The Change Any map is just a frozen image of the world. The information landscape is fluid and ever-changing. Stewards are being recruited and moving on. Tables, reports and definitions are added, changed and discarded. Once you ve finished the mapping process, you ll find your map already starting to become out-of-date. Connect the map into the demand management, change management and human resources processes - it s the only way to keep it truly current. It is not a one time initiative. It s a never-ending activity which needs to be woven into your organisation s core processes. Connect the portal to DQ tools and publish the Quality of your information assets. Use workflow to control the life cycle of information assets. Listen to feedback and enrich your content with it. Channel business requests to Order Book.

Repeat and take it to the next level Once you ve covered the first domains with sufficient detail and even managed to capture their ongoing changes then it s time to expand and document a new one. An approach of small continual improvements is the best way to roll out enterprise-wide data governance. The ability to repeat the governance process in new domains is an indication that your organisation has reached the next level of data-governance maturity. Add more information domains and systems Engage more people in the Data Governance initiative Make it more visual by adding more maps, schemes and diagrams Run an active PR campaign for business users

Key features A Single Hybrid Search for everything (structured and unstructured data). User-friendly navigation governance specific navigation. Security a security system compatible with LDAPs, Active Directory and more. Version control the full history of objects tracked. Social features sharing, commenting, blogging and labeling. Relationships objects can be linked to form relationships (reports > terms > data >people). Performance it processes hundreds of thousands of objects. Workflow it offers pre-configured life-cycles for reports or business terms. Responsibility objects stewardship is maintained and the ownership of objects is displayed to users. Multiple dictionaries many business dictionaries can be maintained in a single instance. Training and Adoption Program a clear training program to allow the system s quick adoption. Connectors SAP PowerDesigner CA ERwin SAP Business Objects IBM Cognos Microstrategy Teradata Database Oracle Database Microsoft SQL Server SAP ERP SAP BW Siebel Oracle ebusiness Suite JDEdwards Peoplesoft Salesforce Start your Data Governance journey with SEMANTA s Information Map The most advanced Data Governance portal on the market Newly available as a cloud service. 10 Ency Cloud users $1499 / month