Data governance akin to forms of governments
In the recent times, there has been a renewed focus on data
governance that is because as people and organizations have come to realize
that data is a strategic asset and it can be monetized. When an object is
termed as an asset and there is monetary value associated with it, then it
becomes worthy of protection. If it has to protected and used at the same time
then it needs to have governance. I am beginning to appreciate formation of
several forms of governments in this new light or realization.
Just like monarchy and dictatorship is passé so is data
governance that is controlled by one data admin or an IT head in the
organization. In most organization where the communist form of data governance
thrived this is being replaced by the socialist or democratic movements in data
governance. A few IT teams used to control data and its input, storage,
distribution, etc. The flaws of this system were data was rationed and a select
few decided who gets access to what and there were a lot of red tape and
bureaucracy with this form of data governance.
The socialist form of data governance is what is prevalent in
most organizations as per my opinion. The benevolent central organization have
created efficient processes and rules to administer and distribute data to all
parties as and when required. The drawbacks with this system is still that one
rule fits all (what will the lactose intolerant do with all that milk). There
is very little scope for flexibility and innovation.
Finally, many prudent organizations are maturing to
democratic data governance. The people who use the data get to input and access
the data as and when required and put it to use in such a way that they derive value
as per the effort they put into it. In short it is data (input) of the people,
by the people, for the people. Data is understood as the commodity of value and
it is managed with care and governed by chosen representatives who are
responsible and answerable to the creators of value from the data.
To
quote Winston Churchill - “Many forms of
Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world. No one pretends
that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy
is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been
tried from time to time.”
To conclude though all forms of governance will have some
flaw, it is very important that organizations resort to some form of data
governance even though anarchy seems to be very appealing and easy.
