Data Governance

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Data governance is the framework of policies, roles, standards and processes an organisation uses to manage its data, ensuring it is accurate, secure, used appropriately and compliant with laws and regulations.

As organisations collect and rely on more data, they need clear rules about who is responsible for it, how it should be defined, stored, protected and used, and how quality is maintained.

Data governance typically includes assigning data owners and stewards responsible for specific data, defining common terms and standards, setting data quality rules, controlling who can access data, ensuring compliance with privacy and other regulations, and tracking where data come from and how they are transformed.

For example, a bank might establish a data governance framework requiring that every key risk figure in its reports can be traced back to its source, with a named owner responsible for its accuracy.

Good data governance supports better decision-making, regulatory compliance and trust in analytics and artificial intelligence. Privacy laws, such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, have made governance of personal data especially important. Weak governance can lead to inconsistent reports, data breaches and fines.

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