Data governance is the process of managing the availability, usability, integrity and security of the data in enterprise systems, based on internal data standards and policies that also control data usage. Effective data governance ensures that data is consistent and trustworthy and doesn’t get misused. This news came to us from Innovation Aus in their article, “Data governance maturing quickly.”

Organizations around the world are increasingly adopting formal information governance frameworks to maximize the value of data while minimizing associated risks and costs.

In Australia alone, government organizations reported more mature information governance compared to corporations, following the introduction of requirements in Australia for all commonwealth entities to support information governance workers and establish dedicated leaders.

Most companies already have some form of data governance for individual applications or business departments, although it is not necessarily comprehensively institutionalized. The systematic introduction of data governance is therefore often an evolution from informal rules to formal control.

Data governance programs always affect the strategic, tactical and operational levels in enterprises. In order to efficiently organize and use data in the context of the company and in coordination with other data projects, data governance programs must be treated as an ongoing, iterative process.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.