As I have been traveling around the world over the past 2 years or so talking about information governance, some things have really come to light for me. I am not sure if they are net new ideas to me, but more a reinforcement of my beliefs. At times, those are more valuable too.
Information governance really starts with a process and although technology is needed to automate those processes, the technology comes 2nd. Not unlike any other process I have spent working on over the past 10+ years like those on software development, we need owners, drivers, expertise and by in from all directions (top-down and bottom-up).
Thanks to the work of many of my colleagues including Steven Adler and the IBM Information Governance Council and Sunil Soares the author of the IBM Data Governance Unified Process, the starting point for enabling the process of information governance has been well documented and proven out across industries.
The book describes a simple flow for building out the process, metrics and KPIs for measurement and technology areas for automation, with the process piece being my focus today.
Excerpt of the IBM Data Governance Unified Process
In future blogs, I will dig into each of these areas and discuss what I and others are seeing when we work with organizations to help put the processes in place.
Just remember, process for process sake is not very valuable, we need to enable process to improve our work and reduce overall business risk.
Eric,
A few years ago, I would have agreed. But what I see today is a lot of process and not a lot of supporting technology. Companies need solutions that provide operational awareness about what is changing every day in the company.
Change happens. If you don’t know about it, it still happens. And Governance will always be bad when the people making decisions do so in the dark.
More than process, today we need technology solutions that make knowing easier.
Comment by Steven Adler — March 11, 2011 @ 2:42 pm