Data Governance Matters

‘Squiggly Line’ Data Flows

Recently I was asked to review an executive-level data flow diagram. It was orderly, simple. Data in, data moves a few times, data out.

I asked about one of the arrows: Is this really a single set of data? Now 1 thick arrow was replaced by several thinner arrows, since information was coming in from the web, an application within the corporate firewall, and several FTP feeds.

OK, I said, pointing to another arrow showing data moving from one database to another. Is the data simply moved from one to the next, with no transformation?

There was laughter: no such luck. There are a lot of things going on: translation, cleansing, transformation, filtering. Are any of these activities providing value other than making the data usable by the next database? Not really, no.

So, on top of each of the large, neat arrows on the diagram I drew messy, squiggly lines. These squiggles represent waste – non-value-add activity – I said. Is this an accurate picture?

When they agreed, I put down the marker. THIS, I said is what Data Governance can help with, reducing this waste. How? We begin by uncovering the data-related reasons for the squiggles along the way. Chances are, we can change one of these fat arrows early in the data flow so it will continue to accomplish its primary goal but now does it in a way that won’t require so many squiggly lines downstream.

Won’t that make that first process more difficult or expensive? someone asked. It might, I said. Then someone else said that if there’s an ROI, we should do it, even if those first guys don’t like the idea. That’s when the real conversation about Data Governance began.