In my conversations with CIOs a couple years ago, there was a bit of shying away from the subject of data governance. However, much has changed in the last few years with the CIO role. This includes, of course, the emergence of the chief data officer.
CIOs say that part of the issue with data stewardship has been the debate over who owns the system versus who owns the data. CIOs say this is why it is an essential that the businesses and IT partner on data governance.
CIOs suggest there is a significant difference between data ownership and data governance. Some CIOs assert here that if the champion for a function is in another organization, this does not mean the CIO has shied away from responsibility. For these CIOs, IT should be a strong partner. They insist that all the CIOs they know are actively engaged in data governance.
CIOs claim as well that those winning in digital transformation know that ensuring quality, accurate, and secure data is critical. Once data and analytics became mission critical and required for competitive reasons, one CIO said, I think most CIOs increased their interest. But having said this, CIOs say that many still don’t have active data governance programs. CIOs add that there is very little data over which CIOs are “data trustees.” CIOs are more likely to be helping, advising and serving others in the organization.
CIOs believe that CIOs will pigeonhole themselves as technical CIOs if that do not get after what needs to be fixed with data. One CIO said here that not acting will cause somebody else to do all the cool stuff. Want to be a business leader and make a difference for your company? You must be involved in all things data.
CIOs think that getting control over data governance is part of achieving better alignment regarding business initiatives/outcomes. They say, for this reason, that today’s IT organization must engage in data governance.
Unfortunately, many IT organizations are ill equipped to do so. Change for this reason is needed. CIOs believe data governance is the biggest opportunity for CIOs to gain strategic influence. At the same time, they believe that IT is technically best to lead the data governance charge. With this said, CIOs say data stewards need to be a business function of the data owners.
CIOs need to help create, educate and facilitate data stewards. CIOs need to be the champion for data stewardship. CIOs should write and shepherd the corporate policies. IT should maintain the data stewards’ identities and verify they are trained and included in the process. But IT once again cannot be the organization’s “data steward.”
CIOs say it is clearly a “good” thing for the businesses to view data as theirs. CIOs should want ownership. It is usually the business unit’s data, but IT in many cases in the past took a step to far and acted like the data owner.
CIOs say that data governance should include the following things:
At this point, former CIO Isaac Sacolick presented a diagram that summarized everything the group had discussed:
The CIOs really liked the diagram but suggested that the customer or business should be put in the middle. They said that these things often get overlooked in favor of process or policy. Other CIOs said they would add architecture and privacy as a super category called “information governance.” CIOs suggest here that terms like “owned by” be avoided. IT, they say, can best support things by influencing and supporting the right-weight for data governance and related tools, processes and policies.
CIOs believe that the business operating model matters. Is the organization, for example, relatively disconnected? CIOs should get out in front of business data governance.
