Customer Reviews

The Data Governance Imperative

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Chapters 1 and 2 - Frames up the whole data governance issue, giving the probable history that brought your organization to the realization that it needs data governance.
Chapter 3 and 4 - How to define success for your data governance initiative and how to go after the funding.
Chapter 5 and 6 - Describes the people you need on your data governance project and how should you communicate with them.
Chapter 7 - How to build data governance into every IT project
Chapter 8 - Technologies that support data governance
Chapter 9 - Conclusion
Chapter 10 - A case study on data governance

We're all busy, this book came across my desk and I made a decision to read a chapter a day and would encourage others to do the same. It is practical, easy to understand and can be applied at all levels of an organization. As I read through the book, I came to the realization that I am not just a type-A, data geek, but a data governance champion.
The author is funny and smart and provides a down to earth, practical explanation of the bottom line impact of incomplete or inaccurate data from various corporate perspectives. Specific examples are given in terms of data quality and costs, from defining the team, developing a data quality scorecard, and creating solid metrics to effective maintenance and monitoring. While many of the techniques are familiar, the author provides specific data governance examples to which we can all relate. Both text and graphics are used to paint the picture.
This book has been given a place in my personal and professional toolbox.

Although I have an extensive background in data quality, I had never formally used the term "data governance" with my clients. Therefore, I began researching what data governance is and how it specifically relates to data quality.

Thankfully, I found a great resource in Steve Sarsfield's excellent book, which explained:

"Data governance is about changing the hearts and minds of your company to see the value of information quality...data governance is a set of processes that ensures that important data assets are formally managed throughout the enterprise...at the root of the problems with managing your data are data quality problems...data governance guarantees that data can be trusted...putting people in charge of fixing and preventing issues with data...to have fewer negative events as a result of poor data."

I highly recommend this book.

It will prove to be an invaluable resource, both for your organization and for your career.

I enjoyed this book. As your company grows, the amount of data - customer data, parts and supplies data, transactional data, etc - also grows. For medium and big companies it really pays to pay attention to the data streams and make sure they're following a defined corporate standard. That's what this book is all about. The bigger the company, the more fragmented and non-standard becomes, as different functional units in the company manage data in their own way. The benefit of data governance is the realization of better intelligence about your business, better interactions with customers, more efficient supply chain, more accurate financial reporting, etc. The book does a good job covering this topic with regard to the business processes and strategies you need to put in place to make sure data across the company is serving the company in the best way possible.

I have known Steve Sarsfield for a number of years, and have interacted with him in a variety of roles in the data quality management industry. Steve provided content for the companion web site for my book on Master Data Management, which provided particularly good insight into the governance aspects of MDM. Steve's book is a must-read for anyone interested in rounding out their data governance library.