Agile Data Governance – Same Results with a Different Mindset
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A shift in mindset with agile data governance can help your DG team work together
I’m excited to be presenting at Wilshire’s Enterprise Data World 2010 next week in San Francisco. I’ll be speaking on Agile Data Governance – applying agile software development techniques to Data Governance. I hope I’ll get a chance to meet lots of new people!
I’m also participating in a panel on MDM at Monday’s session led by David Loshin. He does a stellar job in presenting a holistic view of MDM, and I also hope you’ll join me there for his pre-conference day of training.
In speaking about Agile Data Governance, many people assume it’s an entirely different beast from what we might label “traditional” data governance, if there really is such a thing. (That would be like trying to describe a “typical” relationship with one’s in-laws.)
Let me briefly describe what I mean by a “traditional” or “typical” approach to DG. These are, rightfully, top-down initiatives where business leaders articulate policies that, when implemented, improve the quality of valuable business data (you may say “information” instead).
Yes, there are a lot of finer points you may want to put on this, but that’s the basic nature of DG projects. The problem with the way we’ve seen DG done is that usually some very well-meaning, passionate, intelligent IT folks get in the mix and expand the scope way outside of what anyone could reasonably accomplish.
And, the DG leadership doesn’t know how to build a functional team.
I’ve witnessed DG boards spend months arguing about:
• Whether to use a relational data model vs an object model
• Why they should or should not model an entire enterprise
• If they should model process as well as data
• If they shouldn’t use a metadata repository to catalog every artifact they find
• How much “as-is” needs to be modeled vs “to-be” vs “should-be” input is required
• Much, much more!
Then, to be complete and inclusive, you end up with a board of 20 people, because you don’t want to leave anyone out and have them turn outright aggressive (not only passively as they are on the DG board).
Tell me how you’re supposed to keep busy executives interested in these kinds of discussions! Someone please tell me how you’re supposed to keep them actively engaged while spending countless hours arguing about the finer points of normal forms, while they have revenue targets to worry about, or are wringing their hands over how to increase margins, or understand (much less retain) their most valuable customers.
Truth is, they either spend their time in DG meetings keeping up on emails or they quickly send delegates because these meetings don’t show them how to meet their goals.
One day it occurred to me that this has some similarities to the problems we faced in software engineering: scope management, complexity management, time management, team management, development productivity, etc.
We’ve all but given up on the notion that a 100-person year project is going to be anything but a colossal failure with at least a 2x cost overrun. (I’ve done these, too – that’s what you get to experience when you’ve been in this business as long as I have.)
So, then, along comes eXtreme Programming, Agile, Scrum etc. The goals and results of software engineering are the same: quality deliverables, predictability, risk management, successful (working) software, happy teams, etc. But the approach is quite different.
This is exactly what Agile Data Governance accomplishes: the same outcomes as other data governance efforts: declarations of principles, policies, processes/procedures, rules and metrics, an actively-engaged set of leaders to guide the organization, measurable improvements in the most important data. But, the approach is very different.
Next blog, why don’t I tell you what some of those differences are. Or, introduce yourself at EDW – we’ll chat about it!
Marty's presentation at Enterprise Data World, Applying Agile Software Engineering Principles to Data Governance, will be Tuesday, March 16 at 7:30 AM.
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Marty
Great post. First off, I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about DG as you are. Second, it seems that parallels between large scale IT projects and DG efforts make sense. Agile DG seems fascinating to combat traditional challenges.
Best of luck at your presentation. Will it be available online?
Great post, Marty!
I like the mental picture of the "traditional" data governance meetings eventually being mostly attended by delegates.
It reminds me of an old movie joke where, instead of a professor and students, an otherwise empty college classroom contains a pre-recorded message being played from the professor's lectern while a bunch of tape recorders sit on the students' desks recording it.
Many of these traditional approaches to data governance seem to be more about "death by meeting" than actually accomplishing anything.
I am looking forward to attending your session at Enterprise Data World.
Best Regards,
Jim
Phil - thanks! I'm glad it seems interesting to you!
Jim - I LOVE the analogy to the college class! You're right - traditional DG *is* "death by meetings!!!!"
ROTFL!!!
Cheers - and see you Monday night, Jim!
M
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Hello:
I am new to agile and wondering how to properly document data management requirements in an agile environment. Would there be any useful tools online that I can use or good sites for reference.
Thanks,
-Mike