Data Governance

About

Data governance is the formalization of policies, processes and practices that inform how an institution’s data will be defined, accessed and used in order to enhance institutional effectiveness.

Why data governance is important

• A well-formalized data governance plan brings value to institutions: 
  • Having official definitions rather than ad hoc definitions. 
  • Clear responsibilities (e.g., steward, governance council) related to data. 
  • High capacity for analytics given the accessibility and trustworthiness of the data.  
• There are real costs associated with having an inefficient and ineffective data enterprise. Poorly governed and managed data leads to an inability to use data to make critical decisions. And if decisions are made with this data, those decisions will likely not be trusted.  
• And there are real risks when an institution is unable to provide accurate data for reporting and compliance, fines can be imposed.