Tonight I witnessed a little entertainment over dinner. My home has a view over a channel off the Puget Sound near Seattle. Some poor soul ended up putting his very shiny sailboat hard aground not far from the house. They launched into a flurry of action, got the engine started, and finally had the presence of mind to douse the sails. This got me thinking about the importance of key risk metrics and the importance of keeping an eye on them (I’m weird like that). Continue Reading »

On LinkedIn, the following question was posted by Asad Quraishi in the IT Governance Group discussions.

Does IT governance promote innovation?

There’s enough compelling research demonstrating the value of governance to the bottom line. This ranges from studies showing that firms using IT governance best practices are 20% more profitable than their peers to showing that firms with both aligned IT-business strategies and effective IT practices have a 3-year compound annual revenue growth 35% above the average.

What about innovation? Does anyone know of a study that shows boosted IT-related innovation in firms with good governance practices? This can include business process innovation. Does anyone have specific examples?

My answer:

Continue Reading »

Some time ago, while working with a large data warehouse, I formulated a simple method to govern data. The method was introduced as part of our Basel II work and was required by our Basel II Risk Management Policy. Subsequently as we were validating our plans for a data governance program, it was reviewed and subsequently endorsed by Gwen Thomas of the Data Governance Institute. She loved the idea so much that she presented it at the 2008 DAMA conference. This simple method is a Data Governance Agreement. Continue Reading »

My last entry suggested that data governance is not a new problem. While exploring data governance, we are revisiting the issues encountered as society built out roads, and developed modern manufacturing processes. The only difference is what we are governing this time is data content instead of a physical thing. With that in mind, it makes sense is to learn from the past and to govern at control points, or natural points of convergences. Continue Reading »

With increasing frequency, people are asking, “what is a simple solution to data governance?” They, and likely you, are looking a silver bullet to bring order out of chaos. The ironic part of the problem is that it is not a new problem; rather it is an old recurring problem with a new name. What our industry is dealing with is really a traffic and logistics problem. Once you look at it in that light, how to solve it becomes easy. Continue Reading »

Some time ago, on a project far, far, away, we spent a good deal of time trying to define roles around data governance. We recognized that both the business and the technology teams were key contributors in our fledgling data governance program. What was proposed was that Data Stewards were on the business side of the fence and the experts on context and definitions. The IT staff would be called Data Custodians who were responsible for the safe handling of the data while it was in their custody. What has me chuckling to this day was the aftermath of that discussion. Continue Reading »

As much as developers would like to believe that they have total creative license, they really are bound to some degree by the underpinnings of their development software. No matter the language, platform, or technology, somewhere along the line there are limiters on what a developer can do that govern their efforts.

Solution developers will resist it when possible, just as my brother once tried to defy the laws of physics. Continue Reading »