Data has evolved from need to necessity with the ever-evolving world and its technological advancements. With the explosion of captured consumer data comes the need for data governance and data privacy. According to a report by Dark Reading, around 3,676 data breaches were reported within nine months of 2018. There have been many other records of such high-profile breaches within the past years, which created a valid reason for organizations to implement strong data governance policies and practices into place. Read further to know how to effectively implement data policies and practices to ensure proper data governance. 

What are Data governance policies?

  Data governance policies are documented guidelines for ensuring an organization’s data is managed consistently. Usually, these guidelines include policies for data access, security, quality, usage, and privacy. Different roles and responsibilities are specified to implement these policies and monitor compliance. Data governance policies are typically formed by a legal data governance committee or data governance council. The policy document created by the data governance council defines the data governance structure of an organization. 

Is effective data governance policy important? 

Data has become one of the most valuable assets of any organization from the beginning of the 20th century and the importance has only increased further in the last few decades. Organizations are increasingly using the acquired data to drive automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence initiatives to improve and streamline processes. Apart from these usages, effective data governance policies help organizations: 

  • Increase efficiency 
  • Improve data quality 
  • Simplify compliance 
  • Make smart business decisions 
  • Scale business performance 
  • Strengthen business reputation 

This image depicts the success rate of applying data governance policy according to a report by TechTarge

Implementation of effective data governance policies 

It is proven that a robust data governance policy improves an organization’s productivity and efficiency. An efficient data governance policy should consist of; 

  • Processes to resolve disputes  
  • Detailed business process documentation 
  • Regular audits to check data quality 
  • List of business risks related to data 
  • Limitations to accessing sensitive data 
  • Data models for essential data domains. 

This image depicts the success rate of various data governance policies according to a report by TechTarget 

Apart from these steps to achieve an effective data governance policy. There are some successfully implemented data governance policies that have reaped good benefits for the organizations where they were implemented. Here are some of those policies: 

  • Data access policy

Not all data needs to be accessed by everyone in the organization. All employees being able to access all the data poses security risks to the organization. Data Access policy ensures that clear guidelines regarding access are in place, especially in particular with sensitive information.  

  • Data usage policy

Data usage policies are crucial to ensure that the data collected, used, and stored is not abused in any manner. GDPR and HIPAA state how customer data should be used and how misusing the data can lead to serious consequences. 

  • Data integrity and data integration policy 

Data integrity is related to the quality control imposed on the validity, accuracy, and reliability of the data. Whereas data integration deals with the development of data models and data structures to ensure that authorized users can access the required data when in need. 

  • Management of architecture policy 

Architectural management policies are central to any organization since they guide the structure of data models, methods to devise data models, standards for implementing database technologies, data storage methods, transmission of data, and much more. 

  • Protection, handling, and security management policy 

These are policies that are in place to classify sensitive data and direct the handling of the said data. There should also be policies that define how data should be stored and protected. These policies specify the standard for disclosure and data use agreements 

  • Entity management policy 

Entities that are critical to business operations are governed by entity management policies. The governance of information stored, shared, and accessed across various applications and the synchronization details are controlled by the entity management policy.  

  • Provenance policy 

Provenance policies ensure that the users can reuse data without the data being prone to misusage and misinterpretation. Provenance policies are also used to ensure that data usage is documented throughout an organization. 

  • Storage and retention policy 

The storage formats and the technologies involved with storing sensitive data are specified by the storage and retention policies. Similar policies should also be implemented to manage the deletion and recovery of data. 

Bringing clarity to the data puzzle, piece by piece 

Data governance and privacy is a crucial step that needs more attention from organizations when the frequency of data breaches is taken into consideration. Data breaches may incur penalties for lax data policies from the government. Apart from the penalties, a data breach could also affect the reputation of organizations. The best way to avoid such mishaps is to invest in management solutions such as enterprise data governance. Enterprise data governance solutions offer key aspects such as data acquisition, data wrangling, data availability, data cleansing, and much more. Investing in enterprise data governance services will ensure that an organization doesn’t run into any issues in future. 

Empower your data to be reliable, accessible, and protected! 

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