What is a Data Governance Framework?

A data governance framework is a strategic model that defines how a company acquires, manages and archives data. The model sets the guidelines for enterprise data, and leaves no room for misunderstandings between business and technical sides of an organisation. A data governance framework is a customised solution that addresses your company’s specific needs, and ensures that approved plans are in place for tasks such as:

• Data policy development
  Data policies are a collection of principles that describe the rules to control the integrity, security, quality, and usage of data during its lifecycle. The development of such policies, is an important aspect of data governance.
  
• Data management
  Data management is an administrative process that includes acquiring, validating, storing, protecting, and processing required data to ensure the accessibility, reliability, and timeliness of the data for its users.
  
• Data sharing projects
  Data sharing projects come with high risk and need to be governed properly. A data governance framework should address the company’s data sharing policies, regulations and uses for the data.
• Data quality
  Data quality refers to the data’s suitability to serve its purpose within a particular context. Quality of data can be based on how complete the set is, how recent it is, how relevant or how accurate.  A framework for assessing this is important within data governance.
• Regulatory compliance
  Each organisation is required to adhere to particular laws, regulations and guidelines relating to its business operations. Violations of these regulations can have steep fines, or legal consequences.
• Risk management
  Risk management is a process encouraging for-thought and preventative scanning of potential risks, in this case associated with data. It is an integral process for any organisation, which a well-rounded data governance framework should address.

What does a data governance framework look like?

Each businesses data governance framework will be based off the principles below, and adapted to the needs of the company.

Why does my business need one?

While your company may be engaging in data governance strategies, the process of implementing a personalised framework eliminates room for confusion and improves efficiency by providing a template for success. It increases collaboration between business and IT departments in order to reach a common understanding and approach to data governance that can be adopted company wide. A governance framework also eliminates the need for repetition, as you will never have to govern from scratch again. Establishing an overarching governance framework can ensure that the governance process will always be streamlined.