Integrating the Dataverse

  Have you ever watched a nature documentary where animals hunt as a pack?  They all work together to take down the prey, but what happens after there is no more need for teamwork?  Suddenly, the animals break into smaller groups and start fighting amongst themselves for the food.  Usually, the strongest gets its fill and then the rest take the scraps.  I can already hear you asking yourself,   “What does the animal kingdom have to do with data?”.   In some organizations, what I just described plays out every day; the only difference is that the animals are wearing very expensive suits.   You see, the organization may have a façade of unity, but internally, they are all trying to drive their own agendas using their own version of the data.   Most of this time, the intent is not malicious.   Each department really feels they are looking at the data the right way and are seeing the right patterns to give them justification to move the ...

 Data governance is the cornerstone of a healthy and effective data strategy. It's the framework that ensures your data is reliable, secure, and valuable across the entire organization. Think of it like a three-legged stool. Each leg – Data Quality, Data Sharing (with Data Catalogs & Glossaries), and Data Lineage – is crucial for stability. If one leg is shorter than the others, the stool becomes wobbly, just as neglecting one area of data governance weakens the entire framework. Data Quality : This leg ensures data is accurate, consistent, complete, and reliable. Data Sharing : This leg promotes discoverability and understanding through tools like Data Catalogs (inventories of data assets) and Data Glossaries (standardized business term definitions). Data Lineage : This leg tracks the data's journey, providing transparency into its origins and transformations. These three pillars work together to creat...

  As we continue to remove the mystery around data strategies, we will spend the next few weeks diving into the components and principles that make up data strategies.  My hope is that as you start putting the pieces of this puzzle together in your own mind, you will start to see that with a methodical and measured approach, a solid data strategy is within your grasp.  Today, we are going to start focusing on data governance.   Data governance is a key component of a successful data strategy. It ensures data reliability, security, and usability throughout an organization. Data governance manages data from creation to deletion. It involves defining roles, responsibilities, processes, policies, and standards that guide data management and protection. But don’t worry.   We are going to take our time.   Today, we will cover data governance at a high level, and as the days go by, we will get into the details.   When we are done, you will all have greate...