Three Metrics for your Data Governance Program

​Surely, you already understand the importance of measurement and performance monitoring…

Managers set criteria for employee performance. Executives define key performance indicators for business performance. We even judge young athletes against their peer group on performance statistics.

We use metrics everywhere. And intuitively, we all understand why :people respect what you inspect.

But what about Data Governance?

Metrics are no less important to your data governance program than they are in the rest of your business efforts. In fact, there are two reasons why data governance performance metrics are a must-have:

1. Data governance programs, like any other resource investment, must demonstrate a return on investment. Why should your team be working on data governance if it doesn’t create value?
2. Any new initiative is susceptible to skepticism. You can get in front of this issue by proactively demonstrating the value your data governance program creates. Understanding this is critical to gaining momentum – particularly for a fledgling program.

What to measure?

With that in mind, I suggest three metrics categories to consider using in your organization:

1. Data Value
   Measure the number of decisions made with governed data and the percentage of project portfolios filled with required data elements – or similar
2. Data Issues
   Measure the percentage of times data conforms to business rules and policies, count of delays due to data integrity issues – or similar
3. Compliance and Security
   Measure the percentage of time data is captured properly at the source, number of times records have to be updated for fixes, count of regulatory noncompliance data issues – or similar

What matters to you?

You may also have great ideas for your own metrics which are specific to the challenges and opportunities you currently face. As long as you’re measuring something that is materially meaningful to your business, you’re already far ahead of any program that lacks measurement and simply hopes for the best. Just remember, as the insights from your analytics program inform your business decisions, the insights from your data governance program improve your analytics decisions. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle which ultimately improves outcomes throughout and across the organization.

Tomorrow’s technology is shaping business today. To learn more about how MNP can help you can make Advanced Analytics work for you, contact Brian Foster at 204.336.6131 or [email protected]​​​​.

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