Choosing The Right Tool For Your Data Governance Adoption
Choosing the right tool for your data governance adoption in the current data market can be somewhat of a daunting exercise for many organizations.
This continues to be a problem as many organizations continue to balance speed and agility to quickly get value out of their data investment as they kickoff their data governance adoption. The complex world of enabling tools has not made tool selection easier in any shape or manner for many organizations. The avalanche of many professed 'Do it all' tools proliferation in the market has added to the confusion of making the right choice for most organizations' data needs.
In recent months, I've engaged many clients who have articulated the frustration in making the right tool decision for their organizations to fit their desired outcome.
While there are many great tools in the market today for accelerating needful Data Governance standards of care, there is simply no tool that is truly holistic in their service offering around governance execution. This is a fact that many organizations must first realize when thinking about tools to help further boost their delivery along the journey.
Why Is Finding A Best-Fit Data Governance Tool Often Challenging?
Data governance adoption on its own in any organization is definitely not a walk in the park, as we all know. It requires a good understanding of the what, who and how by organization data leaders championing the effort. It requires a good strategy in place led by the right leadership. However, the following three factors have unfortunately compounded the noise around tool selection for many:
1) Early adoption of tools - A proper data governance adoption requires proper harmonization of people, processes, and technology. For success to be realized, the foundational bedrock of governance must be in place by every organization. The foundational bedrock of Data Governance starts with people and culture. A solid cultural transformation of people's mindset to develop a culture of due diligence and transformed mindset around their data asset is the number one prerequisite for Data Governance adoption. This must be in place before any tool adoption can work.
Your governance framework of execution must be fully in motion with the right roles and responsibilities formalized.
Formalized Data Roles must have been trained with deliverables expectations, and ongoing data awareness and literacy must have been kicked off.
2) The proliferation of many tools in the current market - The many self-proclaimed 'Magic Wand' of do-it-all tools are not making it any easier for organizations to shop for the right tool for their business case. The tool market has somewhat become more of a car salesroom with many sales reps dangling the carrot of promissory notes that they're the Data Governance Magic Wand. The unfortunate reality is that this has caused many organizations thousands of dollars in recent years as they adversely pick the wrong tools for their business case. Only to find out later that their selected tools are either not the best fit for them and failed to meet up with those promissory notes.
You must realize every tool is at a different maturity level for different use cases. Each tool targets certain governance standards of care, and it's never a 'one hat fits all'. Just because one tool has a dominant market share in one area or industry doesn't mean it's the best tool for your organization.
3) Complexity of setup for many tools over-complicates the usage - Many organizations may not readily have the right skill set to support some of the complex setup and needful customization. Hence, the time it takes to setup and train resource to support the usage of the tool is critical to deployment and realizing value from your tool selection,
What Are Some Practical Tips For Selecting The 'Best-Fit' Governance Tool For Your Organization?
Highly recommend that you carefully review the following features and relevance of each to your use case needs in your tool evaluation before committing to any tool:
Integration capability with your existing data platforms.
Platform support (On-prem /In the cloud).
Access functionality and ease of use.
Collaboration capabilities.
Automated versus Manual features.
Workflow capability.
Metadata Import, Enrichment, and Documentation
Metadata linkages between your Data Catalog, Dictionaries, and Glossaries
Data Traceability – From source of authoring to consumption and reporting
Lineage visualization capabilities
Data Profiling & Quality Monitoring capabilities
Quality Rules Management Capabilities
Issues Tracking, Resolution, and management workflow
Dashboarding and Issues Report Capabilities
Cost of ownership and ongoing management
Professional/Vendor Support
In a nutshell, I highly recommend you strategize the timing of introducing tool capabilities to your data governance and stewardship efforts.
Early adoption of tools in your governance adoption journey is like putting the cart before the horse. This might lead to the wrong tool selection. It is worth calling out that every tool out there is designed for a specific purpose and to accelerate certain governance activities. Your data governance adoption is unique and personal to your organization based on where you are and your use cases. Hence, you need to give yourself some time to fully understand your unique data stories, what governance will look like in your organization, and which activities you're enabling with tools before you go shopping for one.
All tools are not equal to every organization. Finding the best-fit tool that mirrors the desired outcome for your use case, your people, and your organization is a strategic decision you must make as an organization to ensure you're getting the best value for your investment.
Interested in learning more on how to activate your Governance Adoption successfully?
Engage & Book a Free Call with me to discuss your challenges, and we can explore some simple strategies to actualize your desired goals.
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