Data Governance – the very first question to data stewards

Data Governance: The Art of Organizing Your Digital House

What was your first impression when you heard the term “data governance”? Did you think, “Ugh, another complicated IT term”? Or did it sound like something cool and sophisticated? Either way, it’s totally fine. I had the same reaction at first—“What on earth is that?” But then, I realized that data governance is just like organizing your home.

Think about it. Have you ever found yourself in a room so cluttered that you have no idea where anything is? You keep rummaging around, mumbling “Where did I put that?” Books and snacks are piled on your desk, and clothes are stacked so high in your closet that they’re ready to collapse. But then, after your mom tells you to “Clean up!”, you finally organize everything. Suddenly, you feel relieved, thinking, “Wow, this is so much better!” That’s exactly what data governance does. It helps you keep data neat and organized, making it easier to find and use efficiently.

To put it in more professional terms, data governance is a structured approach to managing and utilizing data within an organization. It establishes the rules and methods for handling data—who can access it, how it should be used, and how to maintain its integrity. Think of it as a data manager or butler, making sure everything is in order.

For example, imagine you work at an online store. If customer names are stored inconsistently or incorrectly, orders might be sent to the wrong addresses. What if there are two customers named “John Smith”? How would you know which one to send the package to? That’s where data governance comes in—it ensures that everything is stored properly to prevent such confusion.

A café owner I know once had a similar problem. He wasn’t keeping track of customer phone numbers properly. So when he wanted to send out discount notifications, some messages went to the wrong people. The result? A flood of complaints and angry calls: “Why am I getting this?” That’s when he realized, “I need to clean up this mess!”—and that was his first step toward data governance.

How Is Data Governance Different from Data Management?

You might be wondering, “Isn’t this just data management?” That’s a great question! Here’s the difference:

If data management is like a chef preparing ingredients and cooking, then data governance is like the restaurant manager who decides what dishes will be served and when. Data management involves directly handling data—storing, processing, and maintaining it—while data governance sets the overall direction and rules for how that data should be used.

For example, chopping vegetables and grilling meat? That’s data management. But deciding whether those ingredients will be used for a dinner steak or a lunchtime salad? That’s data governance. You need data management to create something useful, but without governance, there’s no clear strategy or purpose for using the data effectively. These two go hand in hand.

I once had a friend who focused only on data management. He meticulously organized customer data in Excel and thought his job was done. But then his manager asked, “Who can access this data?” and “How should we use it?”—questions he hadn’t even considered. He ended up getting scolded and had to go back to the drawing board to learn about governance. That’s when he realized: “Oh, it’s not just about organizing data—I need to set rules for using it too!”

In simple terms, data management is about “How do we handle this?”, while data governance is about “Why are we handling it this way, and what’s the goal?” Understanding this distinction will make the world of data governance much more interesting for you!

Data Management vs. Data Governance