Data Management Vs. Data Governance: Why Your Organization Needs Both
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Before setting out on any expedition, you must first make a plan. Choosing where you’ll stop, finding a reliable map, and packing accordingly are vital to having a successful adventure. However, simply planning is not enough. You have to be able to physically make the journey. Both processes work together to create a complete trip.
Using data successfully is an adventure all its own. For any business looking to make the most of this valuable resource, having both a data management and data governance strategy in place is key. You need to understand both — and how they work together — to take your team to the next level.
What is Data Management?
The process of collecting, organizing, storing, and managing data is data management. It includes data entry, database design and maintenance, data warehousing, information retrieval, and security measures throughout the data lifecycle.
Data management helps organizations effectively utilize their available resources to maximize efficiency and gain competitive advantage. In essence, this encompasses your actual day-to-day interactions with data. It’s the walking and climbing required to reach your destination.
By implementing effective data management practices, organizations can improve their operations by reducing costs associated with inefficient processes or lost data.
Other benefits of a robust data management strategy include:
Increased Insights - When you have a better understanding of your data, you can make more informed decisions.
Improved Customer Service - With access to the right data, organizations can act quickly and accurately on customer requests.
Enhanced Security - Data management systems help protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. With security threats on the rise, this is especially important.
What is Data Governance?
Data governance is the process of defining and enforcing policies, procedures, and strategies for managing data. It consists of things like data quality assurance, access control, auditing, compliance management, and risk management.
Governance is the map you use to plan out your journey. You may need to revisit it as you go and make adjustments, but it will still give you the blueprint for how data management plays out.
When you set up and enforce comprehensive data governance, you’ll be sure that everyone on your team is clear about how data is to be used and who can use it for what.
Other benefits of comprehensive data governance include:
Full Transparency - Data governance helps ensure that all departments understand the data policies and processes within the organization.
Simplified Decision-Making - With policies and procedures laid out for small decisions, you can focus energy on making innovative, value-driven decisions.
Improved Compliance - By following established data governance practices, organizations can better meet any regulatory or legal requirements for managing their data.
Data Management vs Data Governance
If you have neither governance nor management, your data will be scattered, inconsistent, and difficult to use.
Without governance, data is at risk of being used incorrectly or maliciously. Without management, data can become outdated and unreliable. When neither is present in your organization, you will have a difficult time making informed decisions because the data won’t be trustworthy.
While both data governance and data management are essential for organizations to succeed, they have different goals. Data governance focuses on the policies, procedures, and processes that help ensure quality data is maintained in an organization, while data management focuses on how that data is collected, stored, and accessed.
If a company focuses solely on management and ignores governance altogether, there will be no unified ideas about how to use the data. Each team member will have their own way of operating, leading to confusion, chaos, and a lack of accountability.
On the other hand, if a team puts all its effort into data governance, there will be no actual data to utilize. A map without action is simply a plan that will never come to fruition.
Finding Balance
To get your governance and management plans operating in tandem, you need to have a clear understanding of what each entails.
Processes
When deciding how your team will use data, you’ll start with data governance. Someone needs to decide how your data is checked for quality, who is allowed to access certain data, and how your team will be prepared to comply with regulations.
Once the plan is set up, it’s time to move into the management stage. This will involve processes like data storage, analytics, and ensuring that data is in a consistent format.
People
Data governance involves setting policies and high-level planning. This is why it falls into the domain of business managers, stakeholders, and IT teams. The plans need to be clearly communicated to the rest of the company so that rules and regulations can be upheld.
To implement the governance framework, the entire company must be involved in data management. Data engineers, architects, and administrators will all have a hand in execution. However, a strong and agile team will involve every single member in the day-to-day data operations.
Technology
The technology involved in data governance will be similar to the technology your team uses for other rules and regulations. Having a glossary, catalog, or guide is a great way to make sure that everyone has access to the plan.
A hard copy or email of this important information can easily get lost or lead to confusion. That’s why setting up your data governance plans with a tool like Stormboard is so powerful.
Stormboard allows everyone in a team to access information in real-time and even allows them to ask questions or flag concerns. This kind of collaboration brings the entire team into the governance process and ensures they are invested and equipped to take on data management.
When moving on to data management, the technology you’ll be concerned with will facilitate data storage, analysis, and usage.
Best Practices for Data Governance & Management
As you start to put your data strategy into practice, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. If you want to use data like a seasoned professional, here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind.
Focus On Data Quality
To implement data-driven decision-making, you need to ensure that your data is top quality. This means ensuring that your data is accurate, up-to-date, and free from errors.
Data quality can be improved by implementing data validation processes. This involves validating the accuracy of your data as it is entered, stored, and retrieved.
Additionally, you should also regularly review your existing data to make sure it is still accurate and current. Ensure that you have procedures in place for identifying and correcting any errors or inconsistencies in your data.
Invest In The Right Tools
Having the right tools in place makes all the difference when it comes to managing and governing data. With so many tools available, it’s important to consider how they will work together to create a cohesive whole. Integration between platforms is a must, especially when dealing with massive amounts of information that exist across various tools and platforms.
Another thing to keep in mind is the kind of data you want to be able to track with your systems. Finding something that can function with both quantitative and qualitative data will help you stay on top of your innovation goals and take your company into the future.
Look Ahead And Anticipate Future Needs
The world of data is always changing. With new data being created and utilized every day, it’s important that your data strategy be agile and prepared for change. This means staying up-to-date on the latest data management trends and technologies, so you can make informed decisions about how best to store and utilize data for maximum efficiency.
Consider not only technology advancements like cloud computing or machine learning, but also upcoming regulatory requirements or industry changes that may impact your data processes moving forward. This kind of forward-thinking opens up opportunities for disruptive innovation and can give your team a real competitive edge.
In Conclusion
Starting out on the adventure of data can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. With proper planning and precise execution, you’ll have everything you need to move forward with confidence.
Here at Stormboard, we offer secure solutions to seamlessly move from data governance to data management without losing any information or momentum. With our help and a clear understanding of how an entire data strategy takes shape, you’ll be reaching new heights in no time at all.
Data, by its very nature, looks different for every unique industry, individual organization, and even each team and user within a given department.
The experts at Stormboard have decades of experience helping businesses of all types start thinking about their data differently, and managing it more effectively. Set up a free, no-obligation call with us today, and we can help your organization take a deep dive into your data management and governance processes while simultaneously finding new workflow efficiencies.
Dozens of Fortune 500 companies worldwide use Stormboard to evolve their use of data for a competitive advantage — why not join them today?
About the author:
A programmer by trade, Nick Saraev is a freelance writer and entrepreneur with a penchant for helping people excel in their careers. He's been featured on Popular Mechanics & Apple News, and has founded several successful companies in e-commerce, marketing, and artificial intelligence. When he's not working on his latest project, you can find him hiking or painting.
