Using a Data Governance Playbook to Drive Data Steward Maturity

It’s always exciting to have new individuals join the data governance organization. For most companies, these new individuals will have a part-time role in data governance. Many of those individuals will be data content owners or data stewards. They have limited time to allocate to their data governance tasks, and are often very concerned with the responsibilities they have just “accepted.”  The concept of a data governance playbook may be exactly what is needed to on-board these individuals and help them become productive quickly.

It is the responsibility of the governance core team to on-board these individuals and establish a clear understanding of the responsibilities and activities that are expected from them. However, just providing the list of responsibilities is not always helpful to the individuals that are new to data governance. Some of the significant challenges facing new governance members are:

We often hear questions such as the following:

For those of us who’ve worked on data governance teams for a while, we may forget that the terminology for data governance sounds like a foreign language to many new individuals. We are expecting them to “be accountable for the language of the business terms,” yet they are not clear on what is expected of them. While Collibra has a wealth of education, these individuals many not have the time to leverage the Collibra Community and the Collibra University courses. Thus, the data governance team must provide a more effective approach for on-boarding new governance members.

Now, some organizations may have a slide deck that helps with guidance. Others have a list of activities that are expected of the data stewards. But for most business individuals new to data governance, they need more. Again, the concept of a data governance playbook may be exactly what is needed to on-board these individuals and help them become productive quickly.

A data governance playbook describes each activity in terms of the inputs and entrance criteria, the processes to be completed, who is accountable for the tasks, and the interactions required.