DATA GOVERNANCE: THE CHALLENGES

Data Governance is crucial in today’s data-driven business for managing and using data effectively and making the most of the information that data can bring. Although it is an essential component of data management, data governance presents some challenges, such as resources and organisational challenges, data management and technological challenges, or operational and compliance challenges.

Resources and Organisational Challenges

• Limited resources – either staff or budget constraints;

• Lack of data literacy – the absence of a clear understanding of the data value and data vision;

• Lack of data leadership – absence of clear leadership and accountability;

• Resistance to change – resistance to new practices and technologies.

The organisation needs to have enough and the right people to lead and put in place a strategic data governance program to avoid failure and promote a data culture.

Data Management and Technology Challenges

• Siloed data – fragmentation across departments or systems, and no communication or information sharing;

• Data quality issues – lack of accuracy, completeness, consistency and reliability;

• Data integration – lack of interoperability between systems;

• Data security - unease to keep compliance with standards and weak protection from breaches;

• Scalability – either in terms of growing data volume or in terms of technologies and tools;

• Data accessibility – the difficulty of making data accessible to authorised users in an easy way;

• Automation – complex automated processes are usually time and resource-consuming;

• Maintenance – no or high maintenance, or lack of resources for tools and technologies maintenance;

• Metadata management – the adaptation of current data flows and processes to capture metadata and catalogue it.

It is crucial to know beforehand what the data issue to tackle, the tools and technologies in place in the organisation and how they interact with others, and list the most significant features to be implemented, such as automated processes or data cataloguing to choose better the technologies that will support data governance and better design the implementation road map.

Operational and Compliance Challenges

• Regulatory pressure – difficult navigation through complex regulations and, therefore, their implementation;

• Change management – lack of a plan that oversees all aspects of the data governance and how it impacts the organisation, and how to deal with challenges;

• Goals and strategy – lack of objectives aligned with the organisation’s data maturity and lack of data strategy aligned with the organisation’s business plans;

• Roles and responsibilities – lack of a clear definition of the responsibilities per role and the meaning of ownership;

• Monitoring and continuous improvement – lack of monitoring leads to missing improvement opportunities and reduces the adaptation to change;

• Education and training – lack of well-defined plans for continuous users’ empowerment to data concepts, technologies and vision.

Addressing these challenges requires a strategic approach, including investing in the right resources, fostering a data-centric culture, and leveraging technology to automate and streamline data governance processes.

Does your company have a data strategy?

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by Rita Pinto

@ Passio Consulting