Perform Readiness Assessments that describe the current state of an organization’s information management capabilities, maturity, and effectiveness are crucial to planning a Data Governance program. Because they can be used to measure a program’s effectiveness, assessments are also valuable in managing and sustaining a Data Governance program.
Assessments include:
Data Management Maturity: Understand what the organization does with data; measure its current data management capabilities and capacity. The focus is on the impressions business personnel have about how well the company manages data and uses data to its advantage, as well as on objective criteria, such as use of tools, levels of reporting, etc.
Capacity to Change: Since Data Governance requires behavioral change, it is important to measure the capacity for the organization to change behaviors required for adapting Data Governance. Secondarily, this activity will help identify potential resistance points. Often Data Governance requires formal organizational change management. In assessing the capacity to change, the change management process will evaluate existing organizational structure, perceptions of culture, and the change management process itself.
Collaborative Readiness: This assessment characterizes the organization’s ability to collaborate in the management and use of data. Since stewardship by definition crosses functional areas, it is collaborative in nature. If an organization does not know how to collaborate, culture will be an obstacle to stewardship. Never assume an organization knows how to collaborate. When done in conjunction with change capacity this assessment offers insight into the cultural capacity for implementing Data Governance.
Business Alignment: Sometimes included with the change capacity, a business alignment assessment examines how well the organization aligns uses of data with business strategy. It is often surprising to discover how ad hoc data-related activities can be.
