In today’s data-driven world, organizations recognize the critical role of governance in managing and leveraging their data effectively. Effective data governance is essential to guarantee data quality, regulatory compliance, and enable better decision-making. 

 

By establishing a solid data governance framework, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data assets and drive success.

 

We discuss some how-to best practices for establishing a data governance committee for your new advancement Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) platform. 

 

Here are five tips to consider. 

What is a data governance committee? 

Data governance is managing the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data in enterprise systems based on internal data standards and policies controlling data usage. 

 

The data governance committee is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining policies and procedures that guide how the organization’s data is handled, used, and shared. 

 

Effective data governance ensures that data is consistent and trustworthy and doesn’t get misused. Practicing good governance is increasingly critical as organizations face new data privacy regulations and rely more on analytics to optimize operations and empower decision-making. If you’re trying to establish a culture of data-driven decisions, you can only make good decisions if you have good data.

Tip 1: Establish the composition of the committee. 

Your data governance committee should be in effect at the launch of your CRM. Developing a robust data governance framework starts by establishing the composition of the committee. The committee should be cross-functional and include representation from multiple departments and stakeholders.

 

This is because people managing your data will view it differently than those who consume it, but both viewpoints are required for optimal data quality.

 

Additionally, consider various tenures of committee members. Involve permanent members and guests or ad hoc positions. The guest or ad hoc positions should represent a topic that may be specific to a data exchange in another system. And they should be familiar with a particular data governance question rather than stand-ins. 

Tip 2: Appoint a data governance committee chair and charter. 

Now that you’ve established the composition of your committee, you’ll need to appoint a data governance committee chair and charter. 

 

Data governance committee chair supports orderly decisions. This person leads productive discussions, reinforces guidelines, and aids the purpose of the committee. Having a data governance committee chair in place is even more critical regarding heated debates. The committee chair eliminates “round-table discussions” and maintain functionality despite disagreements. 

 

Data governance committee charter formalizes documents, defines your strategy, and outlines roles. They also decide how the members should work together to meet goals. For example, the charter sets goals and metrics for data quality.

Tip 3: Develop a data governance training program.

Don’t assume everyone—regardless of their participation in the committee—knows and understands data governance. Develop a training program and deliver it equality. 

 

For those on the data governance committee, training eliminates confusion and synchronizes information. 

 

For those who are not on the committee, training eliminates any fears of “missing out.” Additionally, training creates transparency and empowers them to bring issues to the data governance committee.

Tip 4: Identify a communication plan.

The data governance committee needs an overall communication plan that acts as a public relations campaign. The communication plan should clearly identify metrics.

• What are the metrics that are resulting from this data governance strategy and committee being in place? 
• Are there improvements being made?
• What spheres of excellence have come about for data governance strategy and commitments? 

The data governance committee may not be the most popular people in the organization, so you must maintain metrics and communicate how these efforts are pushing the institution in a positive direction. 

Tip 5: Provide resources for the data governance committee.

While the data governance committee will make recommendations, discuss challenging issues, and help the institution move forward, they can’t be successful without a supportive infrastructure. One of the critical components of the infrastructure is having data governance security policies and guidelines. 

 

The data governance committee will turn to executive leadership to support and approve these guidelines. And executive leaderships should be willing to have ongoing and interactive discussions. If the committee can’t lean toward executive leadership to enact change, they’ll be stuck in a perpetual cycle reviewing the same situation repeatedly. You don’t want to make them the enemy, but you do want them to be the think tank advisory board on data quality and management.