Litmus Test for Data Governance Initiatives: What do you need to do to garner executive sponsorship?

It was a long day in Cincinnati, we had full day of conference, demos and discussions around data governance/data quality topics. Some of my colleagues, friends in the industry decided to retire in a bowling alley. Over the bowling game and few beers we obviously resorted to talking about the same topic we have been discussing all throughout the day. After about couple of hours of discussion lane #7, and#8 and #9 came to same conclusion: one of the toughest parts of data governance initiatives is ongoing executive sponsorship and the need for demonstrating tangible ROI.

On my flight way back home I jotted down some thoughts around this topic and thought of creating a basic list of questions which could be used as a litmus test to validate, if all the right steps are taken to ensure ongoing executive sponsorship and tangible ROI proof points for data governance initiative.

Everybody who is involved in some sort of data governance initiative knows the criticality and the importance of having executive sponsorship for the overall success and viability of the data governance programs.

It is really important to have the right level of understanding about organizational goals and drivers. With the specific knowledge of organizational initiatives it is much easier to link data governance initiative to specific organizational goals/drivers. Creating this link between goals and data governance will help in creating the necessary ROI case for data governance as well as garner the executive sponsorship.

So here is the list of the 10 simple yet relevant questions which I am proposing every data governance team should use as a litmus test from time to time to validate, if they are going on the right track to ensure ongoing executive sponsorship and capacity to demonstrate tangible ROI to the organization.

1.       Every Monday morning CEO and his direct reports meet to review organizational KPI’s. Do you precisely know which metrics are being looked at on a weekly basis?

2.       Do you know what the goals are for those KPIs?

3.       Do you know how each of those metrics/KPIs is put together and by whom?

4.       Do you know which KPIs are not meeting their desired goals?

5.       Do you have sample presentation or a report which all of the executives look at, in the Monday morning meeting?

6.       Once you have an idea about the key metrics, people who put together those metrics for executives, do you know which systems are responsible for generating and managing raw data which is required for those metrics?

7.       Do you have an understanding of the quality, reliability, timeliness of the data which is being used to put together those metrics?

8.       Have you found issues with data quality, reliability, timeliness of the data or how the data is managed on ongoing basis?

9.       Have you shared you are findings of the quality and reliability of the raw data which is being used to put together weekly KPIs with the executives which are responsible for those KPIs?

10.   Have you reached any common understanding regarding the need to address data quality, reliability, timeliness or issues around how the data is being managed with the key executives whose KPI’s are being impacted because of the underlying issues associated with the data? And benefits of such actions/initiatives?

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, you are well on your way to generate tangible ROI, Garner executive sponsorship for your data governance initiatives. And you have very high chance of being successful at achieving all of your goals of data governance initiative.

On the other hand, if you did not answer yes to one or many of the questions above, it is time to go back to the whiteboard and understand how truly you have been able to justify the ROI? How realistic is that case? And do you truly have executive sponsorship and support to your data governance initiatives?

I would love to hear your thoughts around this topic, and in specific if you would add any more questions? Take away any of the above questions? Or simplify any of the questions?

In my opinion, how and when you ask these questions and take appropriate actions will differ based on where in the life cycle of the project you are. In future posts, I will discuss relevancy of this litmus test and other factors influencing your actions based on this litmus test for two scenarios:

1.       For teams who are just in the beginning phases of proposing Data governance program, but yet not started.

2.       Teams who are already working through the Data governance programs.

Suggested reading next:

Data Governance Litmus Test: Know thy KPIs

Data Governance Litmus Test: Know goals behind KPIs

Data Governance Litmus Test: How and who is putting together metrics/KPIs for executives?

Data Governance Litmus Test: Do You Have Access to the Artifacts Used by Executives?

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