NetApp's approach to data governance enables trusted decision-making

Over the last ten years McCoy and Pargaz have learned many lessons when it comes to data governance. But, they have always stayed the course. “Our strategy has been about business adoption and keeping it simple,” says Pargaz. “We are always looking to engage with our business colleagues to figure out their challenges and how we can prototype something to solve that,” she adds.

This business-led approach is reflected in the federated governance model that NetApp has evolved. The company has more than 160 data stewards distributed across its various business lines and operating units - each of whom owns at least one data asset.

This list has grown steadily over the years as more data domains have been brought into the governance program. As part of that process, the data governance team have always sought to elicit sponsorship from senior business executives - a key to success. Every new domain that is onboarded begins with a meeting with the executive heading up that business.

The team recognizes that even with sponsorship from senior business executives, they still need to ensure that engagement levels remain high. That is why they have always maintained a semi-annual review process to keep content current. “Data stewards don’t necessarily do the job without a gentle push,” notes Pargaz.

Maintaining an accurate and current business glossary requires continuous effort, but the benefits have been clear. The data governance team has been able to foster accuracy and consistency across the company’s data assets, enabling different business units to use consistent definitions, discover more datasets and understand the context around that data.

To maximize those benefits, the team has had to publicize its efforts and ensure employees know about the glossary and have easy access to it. “One of the things we did was to implement a ‘find a definition’ widget on our corporate homepage, which drove up usage by more than 200%,” says McCoy.