Data Governance - Critical Success Factors

I recently read Marino's paper (2004) which addressed the critical success factors for data governance by addressing the the 10 corporate oversights, I summarize & explain some of the important points that I found useful:

• Accountability & Strategic Accountability: The executive leadership has a clear mandate to drive data governance process.  This means roles and responsibilities for various people in the organization that are involved in the data governance process be accurately defined. 
• Standards: Data standards needs to be established. Corporate Data is a valuable asset that needs caring & defining which means it made for a purpose and that purpose determines and drives value.
• Embracing Complexity: Data stakeholders are the producers and consumers of data hence the data stakeholder management is a complex process as data itself. Processes need to be implemented taht collects, churns and distributes this data to the right stakeholders.
• Choosing Strategic points of control: Controls need to be put in place to determine where and when the quality of data is to be assessed and addressed. 
• Compliance monitoring: Data management policies and procedures need to be assessed periodically in order to ensure that the policies and procedures are being followed.
• Metrics: Definition of outcome specific data quality metrics is important for measuring data governance success.
• Cross Divisional Issue: The data governance structure must be designed so that it includes participation from all levels of the organization to reconcile priorities, expedite conflict resolution, and encourage the support of data quality
• Senior Management follows suit: Leadership should not be excluded and should follow the rules of engagement laid out by the data governance model/framework or DG team
• Training & Awareness: Data stakeholders need to be aware of the value of data governance. The importance of data quality, its benefits, values need to be communicated regularly. 

I added the last two in the list because from the political and perception standpoint these points are considered lightly and eventually become primary reasons for the failure of implementation of Data Governance in organizations. From personal experience I have seen small as well as big organizations becoming comfortable on the last two points during the implementation of a data governance framework.

Thoughts @ night,

Sam Kurien

Marinos, G 2004. We're Not Doing What? The Top 10 Corporate Oversights in Data Governance, DM Review, September, viewed 12 August 2010

Governance Gears

Should IT or business drive the data governance programs in an organization? This opens a can of worms and possible debates in the academic and the industry. Practice in various types of organizations/industries be it in regard to  IT Governance or Data Governance differs exponentially. In most of the cases its absent, in some their is no differentiation as it is lumped as something the technology department does, in some organizations there are clear distinctions between corporate governance vs IT vs Data governance whilst in some each operate in isolation.

The COBIT framework incorporate financial reporting component from the COSO framework which implies that data quality is critical and important for preparing accurate financial reporting. The CEO's and CFO's are personally accountable for the credibility of these financial reports (thx Sarbanes-Oxely Act of 2002).  Therefore inherently it is the direct responsibility of the the Business functions to ensure the correctness, credibility, quality and validity of the data and IT is responsible for the infrastructure that holds, processes, data-mines and reports on that data. Here then lies our answers to the difference in IT Governance and Data Governance. IT Governance ensures that the IT infrastructure aligns with business objectives and utilizes cost effective measures to integrate technology with business functions. It thus becomes the pipe that connects flow of information for business heads to take decisions on. Whereas Data Governance is as Cohen(2006) defines "the process by which a company manages the quantity, consistency, usability, security and availability of data". I like the way Thomas G (2006) in her book 'Alpha Males and Data Disaster' defines data governance as the referring to the organizational bodies, rules, decisions rights, and accountabilities of people and information systems as the perform information-related processes. She appropriately puts it well saying "data governance sets the rules of engagement that management will follow as the organization uses data".

So it may be very confusing if Data Governance is sub-set of IT Governance? True and False, in some cases it is parallel in some cases it may fall under IT Governance function but primarily Data Governance is a management responsibility. The way I see it is Data Governance and IT Governance and overall Corporate Governance as smooth aligned gears rotating their processes & functions under a specified framework of exchanging information & reporting to fulfill the corporate governance objectives of the management. This in turns helps in adding value and better alignment/integration of technology, data and business functions.

Thoughts @ night on the reasons why the CIO is not just the bridge but a data streaming coaxial cable between business and technology.

Sam Kurien

Cohen, R 2006. BI Strategy: What's in a Name? Data Governance Roles, Responsibilities and Results Factors. DM Reviw, viewed 12 Jan 2007

Thomas G 2006. Alpha Males and Data Disaster. Published by Brass CAnnon Press, USA

IT Governance - CIO Role

I feel IT Governance is the most an important function under the umbrella of the CIO. Since Technology Governance is a overarching organizational issue, the CIO comes in as a strategist with the unique ability to bridge the gap of the many business departments and that require technology and offer perspectives on solving business problems. In practice however there seems to be a lot of confusion in roles and responsiblities of a CIO  in the technology governance realm when compared to the CTO. The CIO is not your IT guy, web guy, or the techie that rescues you from the hole.

The key attributes that will be required by a person in the CIO role would be

Big-picture thinking

Big picture thinking is the ability to see the whole gammut of organizational operations and see, identify the broken processes or the lack of them and the need of integrating technology to improve efficienty of the bottom line of operations and streamline flow of information back to the senior management.

Capturing Market Share

A CIO role in technology governance becomes crucial because he is responsible for connecting the dots of communication between business functions internally and use a heavy dosage of business intelligence and market awareness and bring that data to the table for strategic planning and strategic decision making.
Auditing Risk & Security
Another key area I feel the CIO role in IT Governance is auditing risk and security of the databases, data in general, and the procurment & implementation of the technology strategies. A cost/benefit ratio analysis, ROI and other financial ratios and KPIs are important tools in the arsenal the CIO carries.

Misconceptions

But I thought the CIO was the head of the IT department?

The technology department is a operational entity but also a curcial strategic entity these days. Because of its operational nautre and its 60% responsibilities take the nature of executing and supporting daily technical needs of employees, implementing technology, building services etc, it still requires the guidance of the CIO to implement and make sure that these activities aim at increasing efficiency of the organization and satisfying current and future business needs & problems.  In many organizations based upon size there may be multiple operational IT managers and here is where alignment of solutions and operational efficieny and mitigation of risks should go hand in hand.

Why don’t other departments just talk to the operational manager(s) of IT?

Normally the technology department or operational project managers take in problems, build a new service from heads & personnel of functional depts like HR, Finance, Engineering, Warehouse etc and implement solutions in silos, or "one-off" solutions that are temporary fixes, workarounds because of costing issues. But these end up being expensive in the long run because of maintenance burdens, migration bottlenecks, and ultimately wastage of IT Resources. The role of the CIO becomes crucial here because he takes into account alignment of business needs, overarching business goals, future needs, and plans for scalabiltiy. These factors bring in skill sets the CIO offers to be the middle man broker between functional heads and technology. The final objective is seamless integration for seamless delivery of services using technology.

CIO's Involvment

A CIO's involvement thus in Technology Governance becomes less in operational & technology implementation but more involved in business strategy, revenue generation, business-technology process management, and being the completing cog in the entire customer relationship management. My intention here of using CRM term is intended at internal as well external customers and this includes all the partners who are involved in increasing the value chain. CIO's involvment is heavy in terms of strategy, critical data touch-points and information risk management.

My thoughts for the day,

Sam Kurien

What is IT Governance?

I am planning to start a series of posts here that will enable me to get motivated on compiling and collating my thoughts on IT Governance from my dissertation research. It will also be an avenue to compile a body of knowledge in terms of maturity models and add vignette's and thoughts of industry experts, leaders, practitioners and the academic, blend and see what unique perspectives emerge. Who knows I may invite other writers in the field to contribute and see where it goes...

So to start off, What is IT Governance? 

IT Governance is an integral part of Corporate Governance a direct responsibility of the the board of directors and the executive management of the company. It is an integral strategic component of the corporate governance model  that consists of:

1. Leadership
2. Organizational Structure and finally
3. The processes that define within those structures

All these ensure that the organization's information technology and technology in general sustains and extends the organizations's strategies and objectives.

The traditional roles of IT being support function is disappearing as technology becomes vital component in the delivery of services and products but at the same time technology is also the component that keeps running the systems and processes of the organization. Hence the role of the CIO's and IT Director's is thus becoming more than technology experts but have the inherent need to understand business and its reach so as to marry the two for effective partnership to deliver the objectives of the senior management. The ideal candidates for Governance  position have to have the unique ability to add value to the overall services & offerings of the business, assess & mitigate risks, and be involved in the optimization of business processes through the use of cost effective technology solutions.

Having known this what is the role of the executive management?

These can be summarized as follows:

1. Comply with corporate governance recommendations.
2. Be driven by stakeholder expectation/perception of value
3. Adopt a suitable IT Governance framework and empower the individual over IT
4. Ask the Right questions
5. Focus on Technology alignment to business, partners, delivery of services and the management of risk.
6. Finally Measure performance in building capability and achieve goals.

Thoughts For The Day,

Sam Kurien

3 Tips, 3 Ways and 4 Things For Effective Leadership

From my gleanings from Harvard Biz.. I am re-posting some good tit-bits on 3 tips for strengthening big picture skills, 3 ways to handle disruption and 4 things to empower your employees with:

The critical skills of seeing the big picture is really a right brain activity but also draws from the left in detecting patterns, relating narratives and linking the concepts that relate to your program or organization's mission and vision. The valuable 3 tips are:

1. Identify Parallels: When faced with a new situation or project, ask yourself if it reminds you of anything. Are there elements that are similar to or relate to other situations in which you've been?
2.  Expand your thinking. Look for non-obvious factors that may affect the situation. Seek out underlying causes or events.
3. Articulate analogies.To communicate what you are seeing, use metaphors and analogies to which others can easily relate.

On the third point I want to emphasize is talk in narratives, tell stories, we relate with good stories and especially stories that inspire, teach a lesson in character and arise them from ashes.

Coping with the unexpected isn't just a good leadership skill, it's critical. Expect change and be flexible for change. Create a plan where you are not reacting to change but being proactive to change. Know with change comes disruptions and to minimize the effects of disruptions you response need to have three ways:

1. Have a back-up plan: You may not always be able to rehearse Plan B, but you should have alternative approaches that can help get you out of a bind. In the absence of actual plans, mental flexibility can help you respond more quickly.
2. Speed up communication: Information needs to move through your company quickly and efficiently. Find ways you can collect and disseminate data in short cycles.
3. Instill values: Values help people know the right thing to do without being told or waiting for permission. They also bind a company together when surprises happen and therefore can help companies recover more quickly.

Harvard Biz quotes transformational leaders know and recognize that employees want much more than that. Here are the four things your people need to succeed with you and for you:

1. Love.This may sound touchy-feely, but love simply means focused concern that is exclusively for that person's good. Show your employees you care about them and their futures.
2. Growth.No one wants to be exactly where they are forever. Create a culture that allows your people to grow and expand.
3. Contribution.To feel fulfilled, employees must know that they are contributing to the whole. Emphasize the ways that their work matters to the organization
4. Meaning. We are meaning-seeking creatures. Share a vision that demonstrates that all of your employees are engaged in a larger purpose.

The caption for people who cannot read the fine print: "The leader always sets the trail for others to follow"

Forwarding thoughts @ssnautilus:

Sam Kurien

Who shouldn't be taken lightly in the Search Space?

Here are the top 5 search providers, as ranked by Comscore for March 2010. Just for fun I’ve added % growth since January 2009.

1.	Google	13,996,000,000	19%
2.	Yahoo	2,839,000,000	-5%
3.	Microsoft	1,883,000,000	58%
4.	Ask	719,000,000	11%
5.	craigslist	685,000,000	38%

I have been discussing with friends how though Microsoft waits to gear up on several fronts (developing secretly, waiting and watching), its a fierce competitor once in the space it enters. Just look at the  right hand column a 58% per cent growth is mind boggling. Smart strategies include in making Bing official on Yahoo and making Bing the official search engine on Windows as well as iPhones (Cover (60% of the mobile space). For Google and Apple getting things ugly didn't help but has given Microsoft the opportunity to propel forth forward in its penetration strategies.  Google is trying hard to diversify into gaming, TV and the mobile space the question is ...Is it too late? Or will it be over-spending and long term low return on investment. Personally I think the idea is how good can you leverage and converge search in those areas and how will you motivate people to use you. 

Classifieds advertising has always been vying space and a $40 billion plus market, it after all burns down to people finding a good bargain and a good trade hence ...craigslist is a not surprise on the search space here; I wonder what would happen if they did search as their primary business? Another surprising fact of this contender is Craigslist surpasses eharmony.com, match.com in the personal ad section. From a UI point of view craigslist is a anomaly for the feel-good designer but an example of a perfect functional site. A bare bone look and feel and the users still hunt for what they need. A 38 percent up ward growth from 2009 means something is being done right in spite of all the legal suits. 

Anyway my observations for the day!

Sam Kurien

'Open Innovation' - Knowledge Brokering

I have always been fascinated with the concept of open innovation, a few years (well many years) back while I was in B-School I read Tom Peters famous pictoral book 'Circle of Innovation' and ever since been arguing (with myself mostly) if - Is it innovation that sustains you in marketplace or is it better processes that nurture that innovation?. I am slowly beginnning to understand that its actaully a  balance of both and more importantly right timing. I say right timing because innovation at the wrong time is thrown out of the marketplace because the market is nor ready to accept that innovation.  Innovation at the right time changes the landscape of the society and brings financial success and sustainability to the company .  So what is open innovation? Since it has begun transforming global companies coming out with new products and been influential in bringing variety of strategic-operational solutions to organizational problems.

  Open innovation is creating a culture of participative management thinking and is rooted in the practice of knowledge brokering which is systemic approach to seek ideas externally from people from cross contextually from various disciplines and finding how combining them to your industry result into a innovation in the marketplace.

The idea here is the tap into people who are ready to share their experiences and most of them are ready to share that experience for free and this is a place where we generate ideas from the marketplace and leverage it back to the marketplace. It is more than just doing a survey , it is an ongoing active participation, knowledge brokering, knowledge storehousing, and then knowledge benchmarking. The on-going activity of generating experiences and ideas from the marketplace can go back in revising the benchmarks and knowledge sharing.

A closer look at the way forward-looking organizations use knowledge brokering to improve their business processes offers practical lessons for companies of all stripes and suggests how senior managers must adapt to thrive in a digital era characterized by increased collaboration.

Knowledge brokering offers companies an analogous capability. I suspect this idea must have come or pioneered by product designers in companies such as the design consultancy IDEO. In practice knowledge brokering is about forming project teams that initiate conversations with knowledge brokers—people willing to discuss their experiences to serve the teams’ needs—and then combine the external ideas with internal ones to improve these companies’ business processes. Sometimes the art of gathering or brokering this information can be tricky but is not rocket science by any means; a genuine interest to be a change agentp; a diplomatic front to seek good and the idea to give credit where credit is due will automatically enable you to gather these ideas.

Consultancy firm Mckinsey confirmed and reported in its study over the past four years,  the use of knowledge brokering among more than 50 teams they deployed at ten multinational companies in industries such as banking, consumer goods, high-tech products, shipping, engineering, retailing, and utilities. Each team used this approach to devise an innovative solution to a project assigned by senior management in areas including strategic planning, supply chains, sales and marketing, corporate social responsibility, and HR. When surveyed afterward, team members unanimously agreed that knowledge brokering increased the effectiveness of their projects—and two-thirds said it did so “greatly.” On average, it helped the teams design new processes twice as quickly as they would have expected to do by using conventional techniques.

Knowledge brokering is not copying but sharing ideas to innovate and bring that innovation when the market demands it or bringing it when the market is ready for it.

My thoughts for the day!

Sam Kurien