The effective implementation of data governance plays a crucial role in data quality within any organization.

Thus, data governance should not only be understood as a necessary response to the growing complexity and volume of data; it also serves as a comprehensive framework that addresses the challenges inherent in information management and ensures its quality.

Data governance is often seen as a regulatory framework. However, it is important to take the step of viewing it as a differentiating factor and a strategic enabler for quality.

The reason is simple: by addressing data quality comprehensively through a governance framework, the result is greater reliability, transparency, and efficiency in the use of information within the organization.

But how exactly does data governance become this differentiating factor? Let's analyze it.

What is Data Governance?

Data governance refers to the set of processes that ensure the proper management, quality, and integrity of data within an organization.

Also known as data governance, it is a comprehensive approach to managing and controlling data throughout its lifecycle, from creation to disposal. To achieve this, measures such as:

• Definition of responsibilities: clear roles are established for individuals involved in data management (data owners, stewards, custodians, etc.).
• Policies: data governance is responsible for developing and enforcing policies that regulate the use, access, quality, and security of data.
• Data Quality: among the actions inherent to data governance is the implementation of processes and controls to ensure data quality, including data cleaning, standardization, and validation. This encompasses the entire lifecycle, including production data environments.
• Data Security: security measures are also implemented to protect data against unauthorized access, loss, or improper alteration.
• Regulatory Compliance: similarly, data governance assumes that data management complies with relevant regulations and requirements, including data protection laws and other legal prerequisites.
• Transparency: the successful implementation of data governance involves providing clear and accessible information about data, including its origin, meaning, and use, so that users can understand and trust the information.

What Relationship Exists Between Data Governance and Data Quality?

The Quality department is interested in harnessing data, identifying what data is available and ensuring it is reliable. The Testing department shares the same interest. Since they both benefit from Test Data Management (TDM) tools, they aim to work with the smallest amount of data possible, as long as it achieves the same goal of being reliable and of high quality.

These two areas of the company benefit from Data Governance processes, but they are not the only ones. The Business department also has reliable and easily retrievable data to leverage. The Development department, thanks to data governance, achieves better communication with the business, resulting in a shorter Time to Market. The Analysis departments (Big Data and AI) have access to cleaner data sources. In essence, this cross-functional initiative reduces implementation times, costs, facilitates communication between different areas, and ensures greater utilization of data.

However, achieving high-quality data is just one of the benefits that data governance brings to organizations. Data becomes standardized and consistent, and all associated responsibilities are clarified, streamlining all processes. This, in turn, has a cascading effect on other areas, such as decision-making, as data is more easily discovered, used, and, above all, reused.

Specific Quality Orientation Measures

The following are some of the specific ways in which data governance is oriented towards quality:

• Data governance establishes clear standards and policies regarding data quality, including defining standards for accuracy, integrity, consistency, and timeliness of information.
• The assignment of specific roles and responsibilities ensures that designated owners oversee data quality in various areas of the organization, promoting accountability and ongoing supervision.
• It also generates systematic processes for data validation, cleaning, and enhancement, making it easier to identify and correct errors, standardize formats, and ensure consistency.
• The fact that data governance addresses the entire data lifecycle ensures that data is kept up to date and relevant, avoiding obsolescence.
• Furthermore, data security is an essential component of governance. This reduces the risk of improper manipulation, improving quality by preserving data integrity and confidentiality.

Data governance also involves the implementation of regular audits and monitoring to assess compliance with data quality policies. This allows for proactive identification and resolution of quality issues, ensuring that standards are maintained over time.

In summary, it is about creating a structured framework that promotes data quality.

icaria Data Governance

Tools like icaria Data Governance promote this movement towards data quality with the added benefits of automation, including significant time savings, error reduction, and improvements in decision accuracy.

If maintaining consistency in data management across multiple departments and teams is sometimes a challenge, icaria Data Governance ensures that all data is treated uniformly and in compliance with current regulations.

In essence, organizations gain access to holistic and comprehensive data management where all parties have access to a unified and complete understanding.

This goes beyond a compliance-focused approach to focus on data quality, making a real impact on the organization.

At icaria Technology, we are committed to helping organizations effectively implement their data governance processes. To do this, we develop tools that transform the way data governance takes place and address the needs of each project.

We harness the full power of data governance to drive sustainable business growth and make it accessible and effective for all types of organizations, regardless of their size or complexity. Get in touch with us, request a demo of our icaria Data Governance software, and discover how this tool marks a before and after in the data quality of your organization.