Data Governance Plan PDF
Data Governance Plan PDF
Version 1.0
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 1
1. Understanding Data Governance .......................................................................................... 2
1.1 What Data Governance Is ................................................................................................... 2
1.1.1 What Data Governance Isn’t......................................................................................... 2
1.2 Why Data Governance Is Needed....................................................................................... 2
1.2.1 Management as a program, not as a project.................................................................. 4
1.2.2 Measurable goals .......................................................................................................... 7
1.2.3 Planning ........................................................................................................................ 8
1.2.4 Personnel....................................................................................................................... 8
1.2.5 Expertise ..................................................................................................................... 10
1.2.6 Integration Tool .......................................................................................................... 10
1.2.7 Willingness to change ................................................................................................. 10
1.3 Implementation of Data Governance ................................................................................ 11
1.3.1 Functional and Organizational Infrastructure ............................................................. 11
1.3.2 Technical Infrastructure .............................................................................................. 11
1.3.3 Policies and Procedures .............................................................................................. 11
1.3.4 The EDM Data Governance and Metadata Manager.................................................. 12
1.3.5 The Metadata Repository............................................................................................ 12
1.3.6 The Data Quality Aspect of Data Governance ........................................................... 12
1.3.7 The Data Governance Activity Matrix ....................................................................... 13
2.0 The Management of Data Governance ............................................................................... 14
2.1 Overview........................................................................................................................... 14
2.1.1 Business and Stakeholder Involvement ...................................................................... 15
2.1.2 Executive Data Governance Council .......................................................................... 15
2.1.3 Strategic Data Governance Steering Committee ........................................................ 15
2.1.4 Tactical Data Governance Work Group ..................................................................... 15
2.1.5 Enterprise Change Control Board ............................................................................... 16
2.1.6 Specific Roles – Data Stewards .................................................................................. 16
3.0 The Process of Data Governance......................................................................................... 19
3.1 High Level Plan and Milestones ....................................................................................... 20
3.2 On-Going Data Governance ............................................................................................. 20
Appendix A. Glossary................................................................................................................. 21
Appendix B. Abbreviations / Acronyms ................................................................................... 23
Appendix C. References ............................................................................................................. 24
Appendix D. EDM support as part of OneEd Lifecycle.......................................................... 25
Appendix E. Data Governance Charter.................................................................................... 27
Purpose/Approach................................................................................................................. 27
Scope 27
Objectives ............................................................................................................................. 27
Deliverables .......................................................................................................................... 28
Quality Objectives ................................................................................................................ 28
Organization and Responsibilities ........................................................................................ 28
Plans for Support Activities .................................................................................................. 29
Risk Management ................................................................................................................. 30
Schedule................................................................................................................................ 30
Governance Effort Estimate.................................................................................................. 30
List of Tables
Table 1: Data governance and metadata management sub-functions. ............................................ 9
Table 2: EDM support of OneEd Life cycles. .............................................................................. 26
List of Figures
Figure 1: Data governance program structure. ............................................................................... 3
Figure 2: Target State Enterprise Data Management...................................................................... 5
Figure 3: Defining data governance goals and measuring their achievement. ............................... 7
Figure 4: A framework for a sample data governance activity matrix. ........................................ 13
Figure 5: Data governance management structure and information flow..................................... 14
Figure 6: Standard Approval Process ........................................................................................... 19
Document History
Executive Summary
Data management is the exercise of guidance over the management of data assets and the
performance of data functions. Data governance1 refers to the overall management of the
availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise. A sound data
governance program includes a governing body or council, a defined set of procedures, and a
plan to execute those procedures. In practical terms, that means putting personnel, policies,
procedures, and organizational structures in place to make data accurate, consistent, secure, and
available to accomplish Federal Student Aid’s mission. It takes on special importance because of
Federal Student Aid’s responsibilities and the legal requirements it must fulfill.
Effective data governance makes Federal Student Aid more efficient by saving money, allowing
re-use of data, and supporting enterprise analytics. However, data governance requires more than
just a few members of the IT staff with a project plan. It requires participation and commitment
of both IT and business management, as well as senior-level executive sponsorship and active
consultation with education communities of interest. The data governance program enables
Federal Student Aid to effectively manage data assets due to assigned responsibilities and rules
of the engagement.
At Federal Student Aid, data governance is planned, managed, and implemented through a three-
level structure:
The Executive Data Governance Council (Executive Council) provides strategic
direction, ensuring that data governance efforts address all relevant and mission-critical
needs of the enterprise. It manages data governance as an integrated program rather than
as a set of unconnected projects.
The Strategic Data Governance Steering Committee (Strategic Committee) carries out
plans and policies to implement guidance from the Executive Data Governance Council.
It prioritizes data governance efforts and communicates with stakeholders, users, and
other communities of interest. It identifies staff (data stewards) to oversee areas of data
(data domains).
The Tactical Data Governance Working Group (Tactical Group) implements plans and
policies developed by the EDM Governance team, and analyzes and resolves any tactical
problems that arise.
Communication is very important for successful data governance. To succeed in a data
governance program, management bodies and implementation team(s) must tell stakeholders
(i.e., you, the readers of this document) what steps are being taken and why, must inform all
relevant communities of interest about how data governance will benefit them, and must listen to
stakeholders and communities of interest to incorporate their ideas and feedback into the data
governance program. Input and feedback makes governance efforts more effective in achieving
mission-critical goals and is vital for successful data governance.
1
http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid91_gci1151688,00.html
Data Governance Plan 1 June 29, 2007
Enterprise Data Management
Data Governance Plan Understanding Data Governance
2
Data Governance Institute, June 2007
Data Governance Plan 2 June 29, 2007
Enterprise Data Management
Data Governance Plan Understanding Data Governance
Today, however, both mission goals and legal mandates require large organizations such as
Federal Student Aid to report on their activities at the enterprise level. This means that such
organizations need to:
Migrate data from legacy systems into new systems and formats.
Integrate and synchronize data from different systems that use different formats, field
names, and data characteristics.
Reconcile inconsistent or redundant terminology into a single data dictionary providing
agreed upon definitions and properties for each data element.
Report data in standard formats and with standard interpretations.
Data governance makes it possible to fulfill those needs. As a component of data management,
data governance provides and enforces enterprise-wide data standards, common vocabulary,
reports, and the development and use of standardized data. It enables Federal Student Aid to
more easily integrate, synchronize and consolidate data from different departments, exchange
data with other organizations in a common format, and communicate effectively through shared
terms and report formats.
Federal Student Aid faces the classic challenges of enterprise-level data integration. Figure 1
shows the importance of the data governance program structure to meet these challenges. The
benefits of data governance include enterprise standardization for data and systems, the ability to
make use of merged data for additional knowledge discovery, and increased leverage when
dealing with external data suppliers.
Strategic Planning Data Governance & Metadata Data Architecture Data Warehousing Data Quality Data Security
Mgt.
Perform EDM Strategic Define Data Governance Develop and Maintain The Develop and Maintain Develop and Promote Data Develop and Implement
Planning. Process. Enterprise Data Models. Enterprise Dimensional Quality Best Practices. Data Security and Privacy
Data Models. Standards.
Define Data Policies. Implement Data Governance Develop and Maintain Develop DW and BI Define Data Profiling Develop and Promote Data
Process. Modeling And Design Architecture. Process. Security and Privacy Best
Standards. Practices.
Promote Compliance with Create, Capture and Maintain Establish and Maintain Develop DW and BI Manage Data Quality. Perform Data Security
Data Policies, Procedures and Enterprise Metadata (Data Enterprise Data Architecture. Technical Standards. Auditing.
Standards. Standardization).
Publicize and Promote Data Develop and Implement Develop and Maintain Data Measure Data Quality.
Management. Enterprise Metadata Integration and MDM
Architecture. Architecture.
Identify and Justify Resources Create and Maintain Master Provide Database
and Budget Needs. Data Management (MDM) Administration (DBA) Support.
Standards.
Two key steps can help identify the right goals to measure:4
1. Identify and define “value metrics” linked to the goals of data governance, such as
increased data reliability and consistency such as the number of approved standardized
data elements in the XML Registry & Repository.
3
Quoted in Daniel Linstedt, “Governing Governance,” Teradata Magazine Online,
http://www.teradata.com/t/page/150213/index.html.
4
“Defining Business Metrics That Matter: Improving Business Results.” Chapin Consulting Group
(www.chapinconsulting.com), 2006. Available from The Data Warehousing Institute (www.tdwi.org).
Data Governance Plan 7 June 29, 2007
Enterprise Data Management
Data Governance Plan Understanding Data Governance
2. Identify and define additional “analysis metrics” linked to the processes of data
governance and to possible negative side-effects of monitoring the value metrics. For
instance, how many projects that create XML Schemas conform to standards.
The EDM Team will develop scorecards and other tools to monitor performance in collaboration
with the business owners and other stakeholders. Balanced scorecards, in particular, are useful to
monitor the achievement of non-metric goals.5
1.2.3 Planning
Federal Student Aid will do data governance planning at three levels, with two additional levels
providing input and support:
• The Executive Data Governance Council (Executive Council) sets the overall mission
and strategic goals of data governance. It also obtains needed funding and resources.
• The Strategic Data Governance Steering Committee (Strategic Committee) develops the
high-level task plan to achieve the strategic goals mandated by the Executive Council.
The EDM Program Manager chairs the Strategic Committee.
• The Tactical Data Governance Working Group (Tactical Group) develops short-term
goals and tasks to implement the high-level plan mandated by the Strategic Committee.
To do so, it includes data stewards and subject matter experts as members.
• Business owners, users, project managers, and other stakeholders in Federal Student Aid
and its affiliates provide ideas and feedback to the formal management organization for
data governance.
Section 2 of this document (“The Management of Data Governance”) provides more detail about
these management groups.
1.2.4 Personnel
EDM has functions dedicated to Data Governance, as well as the different management bodies
described above. In accordance with Federal Student Aid’s Concept of Operations (CONOPS)
document6, data standardization policies are approved and implemented by the CIO and must be
followed. Table 1 summarizes the areas of responsibility.
Sub-function Description
Define Data Governance Design and implement a governance framework for defining a
Process consistent view of all business-driven data elements. The
governance framework should:
• Designate data stewardship responsibilities among both
business and IT organizations.
• Define a virtual governance hierarchy with participation
5
See Williams and Williams, The Profit Impact of Business Intelligence, pp.152-154 and “Balanced Scorecard” in
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_scorecard.
6
“Enterprise Data Management Concept of Operations – Final,” Federal Student Aid, January 25, 2007.
Data Governance Plan 8 June 29, 2007
Enterprise Data Management
Data Governance Plan Understanding Data Governance
Sub-function Description
from business, IT operations and management.
• Define the roles and responsibilities of data stewards
• Establish a set of procedures used to define, review and
approve data standards.
Create, Capture and • Create standardized definitions for data elements, attributes
Maintain Enterprise and schemas in an online registry.
Metadata (Data
Standardization) • Capture and maintain enterprise shared metadata, including,
but not limited to, naming standards, data classification,
business rules, data models, data dictionary, data format
standards, and descriptions of shared services.
Develop and Implement Enable the creation, storage, manipulation, control, integration,
Enterprise Metadata distribution, use and change management of enterprise-level
Architecture shared metadata. Enterprise Metadata Architecture consists of:
• Create and maintain a metadata strategy.
• Inventory and integrate decentralized metadata tools.
• Define and execute change management procedures for
enterprise metadata repositories and the XML registry.
Create And Maintain Serve as the liaison among business owners to:
Master Data
Management (MDM) • Define authoritative sources of shared data entities.
Standards • Build organization consensus for the logical data structures
of shared data elements.
• Define and capture, as part of the enterprise metadata, the
business rules that govern the creation and updates of
shared data elements.
Table 1: Data governance and metadata management sub-functions.
The EDM Team will support the business units and participate in the Tactical Group and the
Data Stewards will implement their directives in the data domains for which they are
responsible.
1.2.5 Expertise
At the top level, members of the Executive Council (including the CIO) will provide global
understanding of the needs and issues faced by Federal Student Aid. Members of the Strategic
Committee will incorporate that global understanding into a slightly lower-level strategic plan
for data governance in specific operational areas and departments.
The EDM Data Governance and Metadata Manager, who chairs the Tactical Data Governance
Working Group, will provide expertise to identify general issues of data governance that the
effort needs to address, such as data standardization. This individual will also help identify the
metadata that needs to be collected for data governance.
Staff members who are experts in specific data domains in Federal Student Aid participate in the
Tactical Group. These individuals know their data domains and the business processes that use
their data. As such, they will identify how prospective changes in their data will affect business
processes at Federal Student Aid. They will also assess and help to improve data quality in their
areas, and will present recommendations for identified data quality issues.
7
1.3 Implementation of Data Governance
Data governance is a vital keystone in the process of building enterprise-wide data management.
As such, it’s one of the essential foundation pillars of the EDM.
The EDM Team will work with business owners and senior management to introduce data
governance to Federal Student Aid. The Team will work closely with stakeholders, whose
feedback and comments (both positive and negative) will help improve policies and procedures
to better serve the needs of Federal Student Aid.
Data governance implementation includes various tasks, such as Master Data Management
(MDM) and Data Stewardship. MDM supports the integration of Data Governance and Data
Quality Control. Data governance management bodies will share responsibility for such tasks
with EDM and the business owners.
7This section draws on Robert S. Seiner's “The Data Stewardship Approach to Data Governance Chapter Three:
The Tools of Data Governance” (The Data Administration Newsletter, www.tdan.com).
8
Task 15025 Draft Enterprise Data Management Data Policies – Final; June 1, 2007
Data Governance Plan 11 June 29, 2007
Enterprise Data Management
Data Governance Plan Understanding Data Governance
• Assign enterprise data stewardship: Business owners will designate data stewards from
their BCAs. The data stewards will have day-to-day responsibility for coordinating data
governance activities
The data quality tool can be an indispensable check on the validity, accuracy and compatibility
of migrated data. It can catch errors that, further down the line, might be cost-prohibitive to
correct.
Data governance is best conducted with a three-level management structure as shown in Figure
5:
At the top level, the Executive Data Governance Council sets strategic goals and devises
strategic plans to achieve them.
At the second level, the Strategic Data Governance Steering Committee sets strategic
goals and devises strategic plans to implement the goals and plans of the Executive Data
Governance Council.
At the third level, the data-steward members of the Tactical Data Governance Working
Group implement the strategic plans of the Strategic Committee.
follow the data standardization policies and procedures for development of new data standards
and metadata definitions.
Members of the Tactical Group will be subject matter experts most literate on data and database
systems and on all the business processes that use the data. It should include data architects,
database administrators, and technical end users; perhaps senior programmer/analysts, as well.
The group members will outline the necessary components of the data governance initiative to
meet the strategy as outlined by the executive committee. For instance, they will do impact
analysis to determine how changes in specific data sets will affect the business and help resolve
data quality problems.
If a development project identifies data problems, the Group will invite a representative of the
project either to (a) discuss the problem and its possible solutions, or (b) help with research
conducted by the Group. The Group will then develop a recommendation and present it to the
Strategic Committee for approval. If members of the Tactical Group cannot reach agreement on
an issue, they will escalate it to the Strategic Committee for decision.
The EDM Data Governance and Metadata Manager will facilitate.
utilizing the tools and processes that have been identified and that are supported by the
Data Stewardship Program Manager's resources (above the line).
Identifying opportunities to share and re-use data.
Identifying data quality standards.
Participating in the enforcement of data quality standards. Identifying and resolving data
quality issues pertaining to the data that they define.
Ensuring the quality, completeness, and accuracy of data definition.
Communicating new and changed business requirements to individuals who might be
affected.
Communicating concerns, issues and problems with data to the individuals who can
influence change.
Accessing information (meta-data) available about how the data was defined for the
business and how the data was produced in the information systems in order to use the
data for its intended purpose
Ensuring the quality, completeness, and accuracy of data usage according to the
definition of the data provided by the Data Definition Stewards
Communicating new and changed business requirements to individuals who might be
affected
Communicating concerns, issues, and problems with data to individuals who can
influence change
The Team will provide a monthly status report to Federal Student Aid Executive Council and to
the Business Technical Integration Group (BTIG) regarding the efforts underway. Monitoring
and maintaining a data quality issues log is another important part of on-going data governance.
Appendix A. Glossary
The following terms are used this document or are pertinent to its content.
Column: A set of data values of the same type collected and stored in the rows of a table.
Database: A set of table spaces and index spaces.
Data governance: The execution and enforcement of authority over the management of data
assets and the performance of data functions (Seiner, 2006).
Data stewardship: The formalization of accountability for the management of organizational
data (Seiner, 2005).
Data Element: A generic term for an entity/class, table, attribute, or column in a conceptual,
logical, and physical data model.
Enterprise Conceptual Data Model (ECDM): One of the initial components of Enterprise Data
Architecture. The first enterprise level data model developed. The ECDM identifies groupings of
data important to Lines of Business, Conceptual Entities, and defines their general relationships.
The ECDM provides a picture of the data the enterprise needs to conduct its business.
(Reference: U.S. Department of Education Enterprise Data Architecture – Enterprise Data
Standards and Guidelines.)
Enterprise Data Dictionary (EDD): One of the initial components of Enterprise Data
Architecture. The EDD lists metadata objects and a complete description of the object at a
sufficient level of detail to ensure that they are discrete and clearly understood. Such
descriptions shall include, at a minimum, labels (names, titles, etc.) and definitions (or text
descriptions), but may include additional descriptive metadata such as object type,
classifications, content data type, rules (business, validation, etc.), valid and default values, etc.
The EDD is the definitive source for the meaning of metadata objects. (Reference: FSA-EDM)
Enterprise Logical Data Model (ELDM): A component of a maturing Enterprise Data
Architecture. The second enterprise level data model developed. It is the result of merging
application level data model information into the existing Enterprise Conceptual Data Model
(ECDM). The ELDM extends the ECDM level of detail. (Reference: U.S. Department of
Education Enterprise Data Architecture – Enterprise Data Standards and Guidelines.)
Extensible Markup Language (XML): A meta-markup language for describing data elements
that is extensible because it does not have a fixed set of tags and elements.
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL): A standard from the W3C for describing a style sheet
for XML documents.
Enterprise Data Standards and Guidelines (EDSG): A component of a maturing Enterprise
Data Architecture. Rules and recommendations for the creation and updating of metadata objects
and structures as well as for creating conceptual and physical models and schemas at both the
enterprise and application level. (Reference: FSA-EDM)
Appendix C. References
Chapin Consulting Group, “Defining Business Metrics That Matter: Improving Business
Results.” (www.chapinconsulting.com), 2006.
Federal Student Aid, Task 15025 “Draft Enterprise Data Management Data Policies – Final”;
June 1, 2007
Federal Student Aid, “Enterprise Data Management Concept of Operations.” Federal Student
Aid, January 25, 2007.
Linstedt, Daniel, “Governing Governance,” Teradata Magazine Online,
http://www.teradata.com/t/page/150213/index.html .
SearchDataManagement.com, Data Governance Definition,
(http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid91_gci1151688,00.html)
Seiner, Robert S., “The Data Stewardship Approach to Data Governance Chapter One: The Data
Will Not Govern Itself,” The Data Administration Newsletter (www.tdan.com)
Seiner, Robert S., “Data Steward Roles and Responsibilities” published by the Data
Administration Newsletter (TDAN), July 2005 (http://www.tdan.com/i033fe01.htm).
Williams, Steve and Williams, Nancy, The Profit Impact of Business Intelligence. San Francisco:
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2006.
9
Enterprise Data Management Concept of Operations - FINAL
Data Governance Plan 25 June 29, 2007
Enterprise Data Management
Data Governance Plan Appendix D. EDM support as part of OneEd Lifecycle
In Phase 4 – Implementation stage, the EDM Team provides engineering and technical support
for the design and development of data components, such as physical data models, databases,
data sharing services and interfaces, and data security architecture. The architecture and
technology standards created and maintained by Data Architecture, Data Warehousing and Data
Security functions.
Phase 5 – Support occurs during operations and support of the project/system. The purpose of
this phase is to make sure that the project/system is meeting its cost and performance goals. In
terms of architecture alignment, the EDM will review the project/system to ensure alignment to
the architecture.
The following table 2 provides an overview of the different focus areas and the respective
validations performed by the EDM Team.
Enterprise Vision
1. Shared Data Elements a. Are data elements captured in the Enterprise Data? Dictionary
2. Data Requirements
b. Are all relevant Data requirements accounted for?
Initiative Vision
1. Data Architecture a. Does the solution conform to Federal Student Aid data standards?
Definition/Construction
1. Data Architecture a. Is the data required by this project/system already available or will it be made
available?
Implementation
1. Data Architecture a. Who will be utilizing the data created by this project/system?
1. Data Architecture a. Who will be utilizing the data created by this project/system?
Scope
The scope of the Data Governance and Metadata Management function involves the following:
Formalize the EDM data governance structure, which includes forming the Strategic Data
Governance Steering Committee (Strategic Committee) and the Tactical Data
Governance Working Group (Tactical Group).
Adopt and implement Data Standardization, Data Architecture, Data Warehousing, and
Metadata Management processes and procedures.
Create and maintain Master Data Management (MDM) standards.
Enforce Data Quality standards and methodology.
Implement and ensure consistent and transparent data architecture.
Objectives
The objectives of the Data Governance and Metadata Management function include:
Adopt a formalized process for creating and promoting data consistency, data
standardization, data reuse, and data exchange.
Establish and facilitate a formal decision-making body for data standardization efforts
across the enterprise.
Provide a centralized vehicle for effective communication of data-related initiatives
throughout business capability areas.
Support internal business partners with data management for new development and
integration projects.
Function as the liaison between the technical and business groups within the internal and
external education community.
Follow project management, data standardization, and data quality best practices.
Deliverables
Membership list – Strategic Data Governance Steering Committee (Strategic Committee)
and Tactical Data Governance Working Group (Tactical Group)
Data Governance Activity Matrix
Metadata Inventory
XML Core Components in the XML Registry & Repository
Data Quality Issue Log
Enterprise Conceptual and Logical Data Models
Organization Record including business rules
Person Record including business rules
Data Model Repository
Quality Objectives
Monthly interim status reports will be provided to the Business and Technology
Integration Group (BTIG).
Weekly interim status reports will be provided by the Tactical Group to the Strategic
Committee.
The Executive Council will serve as the highest escalation point and final decision-
making body in the governance structure should agreement not be reached within the
other governing committees.
Strategic Data Governance Steering Committee (Strategic Committee)
The Strategic Committee will consist of members of the EOCM and the BTIG.
The Strategic Committee will provide updates and status to the BTIG and Executive
Council, where appropriate.
The Strategic Committee plans, prioritizes, and communicates data governance efforts
between the Executive Council, Tactical Group, stakeholders, and communities of
interest.
The Strategic Committee will be facilitated and/or chaired by EDM.
Tactical Data Governance Working Group (Tactical Group)
The Tactical Group will consist of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Data Stewards
(formally known as Data DAWG’s).
The Tactical Group will report to the Strategic Committee.
The Tactical Group will be chaired and facilitated by EDM Data Governance Lead.
The Tactical Group will implement the plans and policies defined by the Strategic
Committee.
gather at a large table, while other representatives and guests will sit in additional seating. Open
communication will be encouraged and extended to all participants. However, the facilitator
and/or chair reserve the right to limit dialogue to primary representatives if open communication
prevents the group from staying within the scope of the task or discussion.
Risk Management
Primary business representatives may be working on other special projects.
The facilitator and/or chair will identify alternate representatives for these areas.
Business representatives are managing multiple competing priorities, however it is
extremely important that we have continuity of membership.
The facilitator and/or chair will request from business owners that this project be given
priority and members be allowed to attend every meeting.
The facilitator and/or chair will layout a master calendar (which is sensitive to alternative
work schedules), and be efficient with people’s time.
Schedule
Data governance will be managed as an on-going program with tasks related to the overall
strategic goals of FSA. The governance committees will work in parallel with the integration
efforts and development projects. The Strategic Committee and Tactical Group are to begin July
1, 2007.