Beware the Data Governance Ides of March
Jim Harris in Data Quality tagged Best of 2011, Collaboration, Communication, Data Governance, Philosophy Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 3:00AM Morte de Césare (Death of Caesar) by Vincenzo Camuccini, 1798
Today is the Ides of March (March 15), which back in 44 BC was definitely not a good day to be Julius Caesar, who was literally stabbed in the back by the Roman Senate during his assassination in the Theatre of Pompey (as depicted above), which was spearheaded by Brutus and Cassius in a failed attempt to restore the Roman Republic, but instead resulted in a series of civil wars that ultimately led to the establishment of the permanent Roman Empire by Caesar’s heir Octavius (aka Caesar Augustus).
“Beware the Ides of March” is the famously dramatized warning from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, which has me pondering whether a data governance program implementation has an Ides of March (albeit a less dramatic one—hopefully).
Hybrid Approach (starting Top-Down) is currently leading my unscientific poll about the best way to approach data governance, acknowledging executive sponsorship and a data governance board will be required for the top-down-driven activities of funding, policy making and enforcement, decision rights, and arbitration of conflicting business priorities as well as organizational politics.
The definition of data governance policies illustrates the intersection of business, data, and technical knowledge spread throughout the organization, revealing how interconnected and interdependent the organization is. The policies provide a framework for the communication and collaboration of business, data, and technical stakeholders, and establish an enterprise-wide understanding of the roles and responsibilities involved, and the accountability required to support the organization’s daily business activities.
The process of defining data governance policies resembles the communication and collaboration of the Roman Republic, but the process of implementing and enforcing data governance policies resembles the command and control of the Roman Empire.
During this transition of power, from policy definition to policy implementation and enforcement, lies the greatest challenge for a data governance program. Even though no executive sponsor is the Data Governance Emperor (not even Caesar CEO) and the data governance board is not the Data Governance Senate, a heavy-handed top-down approach to data governance can make policy compliance feel like imperial rule and policy enforcement feel like martial law. Although a series of enterprise civil wars is unlikely to result, the data governance program is likely to fail without the support of a strong and stable bottom-up foundation.
The enforcement of data governance policies is often confused with traditional management notions of command and control, but the enduring success of data governance requires an organizational culture that embodies communication and collaboration, which is mostly facilitated by bottom-up-driven activities led by the example of data stewards and other peer-level change agents.
“Beware the Data Governance Ides of March” is my dramatized warning about relying too much on the top-down approach to implementing data governance—and especially if your organization has any data stewards named Brutus or Cassius.
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Reader Comments (6)
Nice post Jim,
So, pushing the analogy of Roman Emperors and Data Governance just a little, does the story of Nero playing the lyre while Rome burned maybe also have a tie into Data Governance?
Cheers, Gordon
Our organization has taken the bottom-up hybrid approach and it works well for two reasons:
(1) the worker bee rock stars are all aligned and ready to hit the ground running
(2) the 'Senate' can sit back and let the 'aligned' worker bees get on with it
Of course this approach is sometimes (painfully) slow, but with the ground level rock stars already aligned, there is less resistance implementing the policies, and the Senate's heavy hand is needed much less frequently.
BTW, I voted for the Hybrid Approach (starting Top-Down) but only because I get bored easily and have (I've been told) less than stellar patience for the long and scenic route. I must be getting older ;)
Great post as always!
Thanks Gordon and Jill for your great comments.
@Gordon — Good idea for a follow-up post: “Data Governance is Burning!” :-)
@Jill — Yes, the bottom-up hybrid approach can be painfully slow, perhaps we need to invent a faster implementation framework called: Rapid Agile Diagonal Zig Zag Data Governance, i.e., the RAD-ZZ approach to data governance . . . Hmmmm, I sense another follow-up post :-)
From the Data Governance subgroup of the TDWI LinkedIn Group, Jill Dyché commented:
“I KNEW you'd do an Ides of March thing! Knew it, knew it, knew it! I feel like putting a laurel wreath around my head and reciting "As he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him."
Here's to data that's both valiant and ambitious! Huzzah! (Or whatever it is those Romans shouted.)”
And I responded:
Huzzah for your great comment, Jill!
Nobody knows the origins of Huzzah, so maybe we can start a rumor that when the Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD, Huzzah was a general serving under Emperor Claudius, who initially governed Britain under Roman rule. Whenever he entered a room, he was officially announced as: "General Huzzah has arrived!" which later was shortened simply to shouting "Huzzah!"
In modern times, the successful implementation of a data governance program is announced the same way: "Huzzah!" :-)
And then Gwen Thomas commented:
“General Huzzah was not announced only after his big campaigns were completed. He was announced whenever he entered the room. So I propose that a Huzzah Point is a point in a process, dataflow, project, or lifecycle at which data is at risk of being rendered unfit BUT has been saved from unintended consequences due to the entry of Data Governance and the results of saluting the general: a policy, rule-of-engagement, or set of controls.
Let's add web screens for self-maintenance of the data. Wait, this includes Huzzah Points. Do we have policy and accountabilities for aligning data controls to existing ones? Yes? Huzzah!”
And I responded:
Huzzah for your great comment, Gwen! Especially for defining a Huzzah Point :-)
From the LinkedIn Group for the Data Governance Professionals Organization, Gwen Thomas commented:
“This is SUCH a good article! Reminds me of a manager I knew personally who confessed that she wanted to be a czar.
In this case, it was higher-ups who got wind of her appetite for power. They asked why she was proposing a big new organization rather than matrixing her efforts across the status quo. Didn't like her answer - a few weeks later she was out.”
And I responded:
Thanks for your comment, Gwen.
It is a great example of how sometimes even those among the Top-Down Powers That Be don't endorse a heavy-handed top-down approach to data governance :-)
Best Regards,
Jim
@Gwen/Jim — Maybe they just didn't want another commander.
@Jill Wanless — And in a similar vein ... Governance isn't the same as ordering, and buy-in has to be more than lip-service. The worker bees need to have their eyes on the same prize (or at least complementary ones); and that takes buy-in up, as well as across, the organization.
Check out the great comments that this blog post received from its syndication on Information Management:
Beware the Data Governance Ides of March on Information Management