Business Intelligence Network - The Vision for BI and Beyond

The past eighteen months have been an object lesson in how you can’t assume anything anymore, and certainly not executive resolve. I recently listened to the business sponsor for an enterprise business intelligence (BI) program explain why her company was far from being ready for data governance. “We don’t know IT well enough yet,” she admitted, even as her IT counterparts were preparing to deploy their ninth BI application. And she was right.

We could argue about whether business intelligence has become a commodity, whether the platform definitions of old are still relevant and whether enterprise data warehouse teams have lost their sheen in the age of fast search and cheap appliances. The acronyms will come and go – even the term “CDI,” itself so recently shiny and new, is ceding to the more general “MDM” moniker. Nevertheless, our data challenges flourish. Companies that have their platform installation cycles down pat still have a long way to go when it comes to getting their arms around their enterprise data asset.

We’ve learned a lot from companies like these. We’ve sat at the feet of sponsors who won’t bite off more than they can chew, and we’ve learned even more from those who’ve bitten off too much and spewed the resulting cud all over their organizations. Some of them give Baseline Consulting the mop and bucket, and we’re still scrubbing the cubicle walls.

Hence, this inaugural edition of the Jill Dyché Data Governance newsletter, courtesy of our buddies at the Business Intelligence Network (BeyeNETWORK.com). We’re encountering some new clients who’ve asked us to do cleanup duty on their failed data governance efforts, and that’s taught us a lot about how to deliver data governance, data management, data quality, master data management (MDM) and data integration initiatives the right way. Through this monthly newsletter, I’ll be sharing some of those hard-won lessons with you.

One of the hard-won lessons is this: Establish guiding principles before you kick off formal data governance. We’ve seen otherwise well-positioned data governance efforts fall apart just because this step was skipped. I’ll explain guiding principles in more detail in a later article, but suffice it to say that guiding principles represent a set of common philosophies that everyone should agree on before data governance becomes part of your corporate vocabulary. “No data will be availed to the business without a corresponding business requirement” is an example of a guiding principle for data governance. There are dozens of other examples. But you should create your own set of guiding principles – ones that work for your organization.

So, given this is the first edition of my data governance newsletter, I thought it was only fair to practice what I preach. Thus I submit to you, forward-thinking reader, the guiding principles of the Jill Dyché Data Governance Newsletter:

Guiding Principle 1: I won’t just pull this stuff out of my butt. My entire company is talking to clients about data governance, even as we’re working on different types of engagements. The stories I’ll tell are the stories of our consultants and clients. And trust me, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Guiding Principle 2: Data governance is not a technology issue. Technology can enable effective data governance, but relying on software to make data governance work is like putting on the muffler and mittens before it’s even chilly. If you haven’t gotten the right framework, processes and handoff points together, all the workflow in the world won’t help zip it up and send it outside.

Guiding Principle 3: If it’s too loud, you’re too old. Sometimes the harsh realities of data governance aren’t the subtle quiet strains of Marianne Faithful but the brash, irreverent, in-your-face riffs of Metallica. It’s Van Halen’s Eruption, not Sade’s Lush Life. And it has to be that way for some people to really hear the message. Don’t worry. We’ll reserve Sade, sans vibrato, for the one-on-one conversations. Otherwise, The Cradle Will Rock. (Okay, I’ll stop now.)

Guiding Principle 4: This newsletter is its own de-facto community. You can weigh in with a comment through my BeyeNETWORK.com blog, via an email to me or via a studied and articulate discussion on your own blog. I’d love to hear your story, read your rant or listen to you finger-wag me – though I’d request in the latter case that you finger wag with your right hand while offering me a tropical cocktail with your left. I might even ask your permission to quote you, in which case, drinks are on me.

Guiding Principle 5: Data governance is fun. Really. We can disagree and still be friends. Deconstructing it and putting it back together in a way that works? Nothing like it. Learning something new? Priceless.

Guiding Principle 6: I will refrain from using the phrase “data as an asset” or “managing data as a corporate asset” more than once per blog.

Guiding Principle 7: Sometimes I’ll fail to follow my own guiding principles – see guiding principle number 6 – but, like our clients, I’ll get back on the horse ASAP.

Guiding Principle 8: We’re not gonna pussyfoot around data governance. We might get politically incorrect. Some vendors might get miffed. People may get hurt. (To quote a line from one of the best movies of all time: “It’s only a flesh wound!!!”) Data governance can be complicated, controversial, headache-inducing and hard. It’s not for the fainthearted. Sometimes it’s downright messy. But no matter what happens, we’ll help each other clean up.

If you found this article helpful and would like to receive the latest data governance insights each month from Jill Dychè, please subscribe to BeyeNETWORK's Data Governance Newsletter.