Data Governance

Methodology
Overview
Modern data governance leaders understand the importance of high-
quality data and are searching for the role that governance should play in
delivering high-quality data, and how to implement that approach to data
governance. That may seem strange given the volume of available material
from ‘independent experts,’ but the truth is, legacy approaches are complex,
resource-intensive, and feel imposed on the business rather than for the
business. In a word, the experts are failing and smart leaders are looking for
a better answer.

Alation offers a new and fresh approach to data governance with a focus on
building a community of business experts who are invested and committed
to improving their organization’s effectiveness and data literacy.

Key Characteristics
The differentiating characteristics of Alation’s Governance Methodology are:

• Pragmatic, not theoretical – The starting point for what to govern

is the reports that are used monthly, quarterly, and annually to run
the business. By definition, those reports contain the most important
business metrics and are supplied from the most important data
sources. It is natural then that the most impactful governance activity
is to maintain the completeness, quality, and accuracy of these data
sources for the benefit of the entire organization.

• Business, not IT-centric – Alation’s governance approach begins

with business content and requires business ownership to sustain
a high level of quality that delivers value to the entire employee
population. This is beyond participation in a program that is led by IT,
but ownership of the process itself as supported by IT.

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 • Incremental not ‘big-bang’ implementation – Alation’s
governance approach focuses on repeating a successful pattern
of implementation across business areas. This enables the rapid
delivery of value to the business, and for decisions to be made about
incremental investment based on proven success.

• Community driven not committee controlled – Alation’s governance

approach empowers employees to participate in a community where
they are welcomed and rewarded for collaborating, sharing their
knowledge, and opinions.

• Guided not gated participation – Alation’s governance approach

is rooted in the belief that people want to do a good job and will
follow guidelines for participating and contributing when trained. It
is therefore in the greatest interest of the organization to not use the
role of steward to block participation or meter the flow of content
but to instead act as mentor, coach, and guide to help people do
things right.

• Employee value, not steward & IT centric value – Alation’s

governance approach focuses on delivering value to employees; not
creating a mechanism to drive value to stewards or IT and enabling
them to have complete power to control the flow of knowledge.

• Data usage, not documentation deadends – Alation’s governance

approach goes beyond simply documenting and creating glossaries. It
integrates the governance policies, standards, terms, etc., with access
to data, queries, and reporting. This embeds and makes governance
an active and natural part of the work activities of analysts and users.

Alation’s approach is also unique because it defines data governance as

three distinct components that can be implemented independently or
together. This provides a level of clarity about what, who, and how to
implement that allows leaders to make clear investment decisions and
understand what results can be expected.

1 Business Governance – Maintaining the content, quality, and

understanding of core business assets and their supporting data.

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 2 Technical Governance – Maintaining the content and quality
of extended data attributes and data sources in the enterprise
data landscape.

3 Compliance Governance – Maintaining the policies, classifications,

assessments, and audit standards required for regulatory reporting.

Each of these is provided with a full complement of roles and responsibilities,

asset types, policies, standards, and work processes. Table 1 in the Appendix
depicts the required attributes for each.

Active Governance Process

Alation’s approach to governance focuses on an iterative process of
continuous management and improvement. The participants in the
community are central to this process and both consume and layer in new
knowledge while stewards guide them based on standards and policies.

1 Set Policies and Standards - The entire governance process

requires that some things be decided in advance; namely, what will

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 be governed, how it will be governed, and how success or failure
will be measured. These represent target commitments that are
expressed as policies and standards that form a framework for the
entire organization. They define completeness, quality, accuracy,
timeliness, usage, access and classifications for both metadata and
data. Governance programs often suffer from a reliance on dusty
policy documents that are not easily accessed to somehow act as
a part of everyday business activities. In contrast, Alation provides
policies as fully searchable wiki-like pages, glossaries, taxonomies,
and attachments to all associated data assets, enabling anyone
to understand the rules when they are using the data. Users have
immediate access to these as a guide as they search, use data, and
participate by contributing their own knowledge to the catalog.

2 Identify and Assign Business Stewards - As implementation of

governance begins for each business area, it’s critical that a full-
time business steward is identified. Generally, stewards sit inside
the business area and play a critical role in driving awareness,
onboarding, moderating and guiding participation. They are
accountable for ensuring the targets in the policies and standards
are maintained. Historically, governance teams have tasked stewards
with primary responsibility for this enforcement work – they are
the so-called policy enforcement officials of data. However, in the
modern era, there’s just too much data and far too much change
for stewards to keep up. To address this problem, stewards and
governance teams need to foster and build a community of willing
participants who are recognized and rewarded for helping make data
governance a key part of the organization’s culture.

3 Ingest Assets - Governance requires knowledge and content.

Historically, this knowledge has been gathered by assembling
experts (stewards and SMEs) to identify key business assets on a
one time basis. The complexity and ongoing change of a modern
enterprise makes this approach unsustainable. Alation’s approach
is to have Business Steward’s identify key assets (reports, terms,
metrics, queries, and data sources) to be automatically ingested and
analyzed. The analysis includes gathering behavioral insight, such as
the most common users and popularity of an asset. Alation also uses
machine learning to provide understandable names for abbreviated

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 and critically named data assets. Most critically, Alation continuously
monitors these assets as the underlying people, process and systems
change. As a result, Business Stewards can consistently and easily
measure the gap between the governance standards and existing
content using curation dashboards and analytics reports. New assets
are discovered during automated updates, perpetuating an active
cycle of assignment and continuous curation.

4 Enlist and Recruit the Community - This step is focused on building

an ecosystem of participants and stakeholders who will adopt
responsibility for contributing and maintaining the catalog. The
keys to recruiting and building a strong community are: the clear
identification of stakeholders, recognition and rewards. Alation
identifies top users of specific data assets during the ingestion step,
which aids the Business Stewards in the assignment of curation
responsibilities. Recognition is based on usage and participation
analysis and is used in communications that identify individuals and
teams in order to celebrate their contributions. Recognition is also
provided through more formal mechanisms, such as certification
levels, badging, etc. There are two dimensions to rewards. The first is
the personal satisfaction that each individual gets from experiencing
how effective and useful it is having a trustworthy source of
knowledge. The second is more tangible and can be provided in the
form of bonuses (monetary, gifts, parties, time-off, etc.) associated
with participation and maintaining quality standards.

5 Train the Community - This step is the beginning of a self-

perpetuating cycle of engagement and adoption. The community is
the key to driving a data culture that scales while following quality
norms and enforcing behaviors and policies. New community
members are onboarded, trained, and participate by sharing their
knowledge and curating assets based on standards. This increases
the breadth, depth and quality of information, which in turn attracts
more new community members.

New community members learn the role of participants, usage

policies and guidelines, catalog navigation, how to contribute,
how to collaborate and governance assets standards and policies.

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 They also learn how they are recognized for their knowledge and
contributions while also benefiting from the contributions of others.

6 Curate Assets - Curation is the process of populating, checking, and

refining the attributes of an asset to provide users with greater trust
through insight and knowledge. It is one objective of the governance
process to maintain the required attributes for each asset as stipulated
in the policies and standards. The Business Steward is accountable
for maintaining the standards but is expected to do so through
delegated responsibility to top users and other volunteers. The keys
are training, recognition, and ensuring that participants realize that
they have an ownership stake in the quality of the content.

7 Monitor & Measure Curation - Business Stewards have a

responsibility to mentor and guide the community to build very high
quality content. To do so effectively, they leverage curation activity
reports, change notifications, and conversations to respond to
questions and request assistance. Business Stewards also measure
curation progress against the policies and standards using analytics
and stewardship dashboard reporting. These capabilities allow the
Business Steward to zero in on information that is missing and cross-
check updates.

8 Resolve Issues - This step involves the Business Stewards requesting

a change, receiving a change request, or an escalation. The key
mechanism used to address all three is conversations. Conversations
can be created on any topic and assigned to an individual and/
or include a group of participants. As a result, Business Stewards
can create specific requests for users as conversations, users can
request things from the Business Steward, and groups can have
moderated discussions to resolve conflicts. It is an incredibly flexible
communication mechanism that allows for accountability to be
tracked and enforced.

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Appendix
Table 1 - Asset Attributes by Governance Dimensions

Assets Governance Dimension

Business Governance Technical Governance Compliance

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Accesses Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Source Type • Accesses Restricted Data
BI Servers • URI Location Sources
• Owner Name • Compliance Steward
• Technical Steward • Related Policies

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Accesses Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Project Type • Accesses Restricted Data
• Associated Report Source/ Sources
Server • Contains Access Restricted
• Architecture Zone Reports
BI Projects
Classification • Compliance Classification
• Access Classification • Compliance Steward
• URI Location • Related Policies
• Owner Name
• Technical Steward

• Business Name (title) • Technical Name • Accesses Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Associated Report Project • Consumes Restricted Data
• Usage Frequency • Architecture Zone Fields
• Report Type Classification • Requires Risk Assessment
• Primary Report Users • Access Classification • Related Risk Assessments
• Applicable Business Unit(s) • URI Location • Compliance Classification
• Key Report • Owner Name • Related Policies
• Associated Briefing Book(s) • Technical Steward • Compliance Steward
BI Reports • Associated Report Project • Last Compliance Review
• URI Location Date
• Field List • Compliance Review Notes
• Report Owner Name
• Report Health Classification
• Report Health Description
• Certification Status
• Date of Last Certification
• Business Steward

• Associated Metric(s) • Technical Name • Contains Sensitive Data

• Associated Query(s) • Business Name (Title) • Contains Restricted Data
• Business Steward • Business Description Sources
• Source Type • Supports Restricted Reports
Data Sources • Architecture Zone • Compliance Steward
Classification • Related Policies
• URI Location
• Owner Name
• Technical Steward

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Contains Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Associated Data Source • Contains Restricted Data
• Associated Metric(s) • Schema Classification • Compliance Classification
• Associated Query(s) • Update Frequency • Related Policies
• Business Steward • Stewardship Classification • Compliance Steward
• Access Classification
• Data Origination Points
Schemas • Primary Feed Mechanisms
• Associated Feed Jobs/Assets
• Associated Queries
• Schema Quality Score
• Technical Steward
• Schema Health
Classification
• Schema Health Description

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 Assets Governance Dimension

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Contains Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Table Classification • Contains Restricted Data
• Associated Metric(s) • Update Frequency • Compliance Classification
• Associated Query(s) • Stewardship Classification • Related Policies
• Business Steward • Data Origination Point • Compliance Steward
• Primary Feed Mechanism
Tables
• Associated Feed Jobs/Assets
• Associated Queries
• Table Quality Score
• Technical Steward
• Table Health Classification
• Table Health Description

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Sensitive Indicator

• Business Description • Field Data Type • Sensitive Classification
• Associated Metric(s) • Most Frequent Values • Associated Regulations
• Associated Query(s) • Most Frequent Patterns • Required Risk Assessment
• Business Steward • Range of Values • Related Risk Assessments
• Uniqueness • Compliance Classification
Columns
• Field Quality Score • Related Policies
• Field Quality Rules • Compliance Steward
• Field Quality Thresholds • Last Compliance Review
• Technical Steward Date
• Field Health Classification • Compliance Review Notes
• Field Health Description

• Business Name (title) • Name • Uses Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Description • Uses Restricted Data
• Query Statement • Query Statement Sources
• Query Author • Query Author • Supports Restricted Reports
• Associated Report(s) • Associated Report(s) • Related Policies
Queries
• Associated Data Source • Stewardship Classification • Compliance Steward
Field(s) • Associated Data Source
• Endorsements • Endorsements
• Published Status • Steward
• Steward

• Associated Metric(s) • Technical Name • Contains Sensitive Data

• Associated Report(s) • Business Name (Title) • Contains Restricted Data
• Business Steward • Business Description Sources
• Source Type • Supports Restricted Reports
• Architecture Zone • Compliance Steward
Classification • Related Policies
File Sources
• File Source
• URI Location
• Owner Name
• Technical Steward
• Source Health Classification
• Source Health Description

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Contains Sensitive Data

• Business Description • Associated File Source • Contains Restricted Data
• Associated Metric(s) • File Classification • Compliance Classification
• Associated Report(s) • Update Frequency • Related Policies
• Business Steward • Stewardship Classification • Compliance Steward
• Access Classification
• Composite File
Files • Data Origination Points
• File Source
• Primary Feed Mechanisms
• Associated Feed Jobs/Assets
• File Quality Score
• Technical Steward
• File Health Classification
• File Health Description

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 Assets Governance Dimension

• Business Name (Title) • Technical Name • Sensitive Indicator

• Business Description • Field Data Type • Sensitive Classification
• Associated Metric(s) • Most Frequent Values • Associated Regulations
• Business Steward • Most Frequent Patterns • Required Risk Assessment
• Range of Values • Related Risk Assessments
• Uniqueness • Compliance Classification
Fields
• Field Quality Score • Related Policies
• Field Quality Rules • Compliance Steward
• Field Quality Thresholds • Last Compliance Review
• Technical Steward Date
• Field Health Classification • Compliance Review Notes
• Field Health Description

• Business Name (title)

• Abbreviation
• Synonym(s)
• Business Description
Business Terms • Associated Business Metrics(s)
• Business Steward
• Term Health Classification
• Term Health Description
• Certification Status

• Business Name (title)

• Abbreviation
• Synonym(s)
• Business Description
• Required Inputs &
Dependencies
• Aggregation Requirements
Business Metrics
• Calculation Example(s)
• Associated Report(s)
• Data Source Field(s)
• Business Steward
• Metric Health Classification
• Metric Health Description
• Certification Status

• Business Name (title)

• Abbreviation
• Synonym(s)
• Business Description
Briefing Books
• Associated Report(s)
• Associated Business Unit(s)
• Owner Name Name
• Business Steward

• Technical Name
• Business Name
• Acronym
• Synonyms
• Description
• Application Type
• Primary Business Function
Applications • Associated Data Sources
• Owner Name Name
• Application Status
• Application Location
• Application Provider
• Processing Frequency
• Compliance Certifications
• Compliance Steward

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 Assets Governance Dimension

• Policy Name
• Abbreviation
• Synonym(s)
• Purpose
Policies • Scope and Applicability
• Definitions
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Associated Policies
• Additional information

• Regulation Name
• Abbreviation
• Synonym(s)
Regulations • Purpose
• Scope and Applicability
• Associated Policies
• Additional information

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