The world of data is accelerating rapidly. In fact, I’ve seen statistics that state 90% of the world’s data was created in the past two years. It’s incredible. And what organizations of all sizes in all industries are quickly realizing is that they need a process to manage the data deluge. They need data governance. And I mean data governance across an entire organization’s data, not just within a particular data silo. But many organizations are not sure they are ready to take on the hard work that data governance requires.
A few weeks ago, the Collibra Data Citizens Conference brought together over 200 data citizens to talk about all things related to data governance. During the event, we asked the attendees to share where they are in their data governance journey. Check out what they had to say.
As I listened to our customers and analyzed the results from our surveys, two takeaways stuck out in my mind, and they might change your perception of whether you’re ready for the data governance journey:
#1: It’s still early. Only 7% of respondents said they have a fully-implemented business glossary, and more than 50% haven’t even started their issue management implementation. That means that there are many organizations that are still early on in their journey to data governance, and many more who haven’t even started. So if you haven’t started, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Which leads me to my second takeaway.
#2: Just get started. I love it when customers offer each other advice, and the one theme I heard over and over again was to “just get started.” So many people think they need to have the perfect plan in place before they begin. But what we heard from our customer presenters is that the you may never have a perfect plan. It’s better to start somewhere – even if it’s somewhere small – and test the waters. See what works. You might need to stop and start again (many organizations do). And that’s ok. The most important thing is that you pick a path and get going.
Where are you in your data governance journey?