What is data governance ?

So what is data governance really is ?

Currently there are a lot of definition about this, but from all of the long beautiful words by all big vendors in the world, I have my own words

Data Governance is a continuous effort from 3 main components (people, process, technology) to enhance the data usage in a company.

Still not clear ?
Well, here it go, maybe my words is not too good, here are some example of other beautiful definition of data governance


Wiki : 
Emerging discipline with an evolving definition. The discipline embodies a convergence of data quality, data management, data policies, business process management, and risk management surrounding the handling of data in an organization. Through data governance, organizations are looking to exercise positive control over the processes and methods used by their data stewards and data custodians to handle data.

DGI:
"Data Governance is the exercise of decision -making and authority for data-related matters."
"Data Governance is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods."

DAMA:
"Data Governance is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods."

Kalido:
Data governance is a paradigm shift in how organizations manage data assets. It recognizes that business processes, organizational behavior and data are inextricably linked, and that the root cause of bad data is the lack of transparency and accountability.

Techtarget:
overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise. A sound data governance program includes a governing body or council, a defined set of procedures, and a plan to execute those procedures.

Gartner:
Information governance is the specification of decision rights and an accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archival and deletion of information.

IBM:
Data Governance is the orchestration of people, process and technology to enable an organization to Optimize, Protect and Leverage both Structured and Unstructured data as an enterprise asset

Accenture:
Data Governance is how an enterprise manages its data assets.  Governance includes the rules, policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities that guide overall management of an enterprise’s data.  Governance provides the guidance to ensure that data is accurate & consistent, complete, available, and secure.

stop it.....

I think it is enough I still can put around 10-20 definition from other vendors, e.g. E&Y, Deloitte, PWC, BCG, Mc Kinsey, etc., but trust me you don't need it. Just keep in your head that Data Governance will make your company better


Notes:
I cannot give you the source where I get this info, some are from google, some are from the vendor presentation to me, and some are from internal sources :-).
Trust me I don't make those words



Okay, back to my definition
Data Governance is a continuous effort from 3 main components (people, process, technology) to enhance the data usage in a company.
I will explain my definition only, to get detailed info about the other definition, please contact those vendors directly.

Imagine a country during war, there are no rules, chaotic, people are scared, criminal all over the place.
After the war there will be a government (you can call it kingdom, republic, united states, etc)
What the government do is they will try to manage (or you can say "govern") all the aspect so the country can product money (remember that country is a big company, so country need to have profit).
There are 3 big things that the government needs to think about :
- Who will do the governance ~ People
- How does the governance work ~ Process
- What do I need to make this happen ~ Technology

where the hell is When, Why, Where ?
this is easy answer
When : ASAP
Why : profit
Where : bankwide (if you are not from banking, then the correct word will be company wide)

Done, this should explained the 3 main components mentioned, next.....

If you are trying to understand the data governance, then you should agree with the term "Data as Asset"
Yeah rite, asset is no longer your computer hardware software, building, people, etc
A company without asset is non sense, even .com companies have asset.

In banking industries, it is useless if you have big, modern, cozy building but you doesn't keep you data well.
Imagine all customer data are not kept well......
 - no cross selling product can be done
 - credit card no can be seen by everyone in the bank
 - people with unpaid credit will create another account easily
 - people can counterfeit their own data
 - etc etc

So data governance must enhance the data quality not just the content of the data, but also security, flow, models, definition (we will talk later about this)