Strategic Services.
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything”
-Dwight Eisenhower
Successful strategy and planning projects create a commitment among stakeholders to the need for action, driven by a shared vision of the future. The strategy provides a view of the critical capabilities and milestones to be reached along the way. In our agile world, the detailed implementation plan will be dynamic. But if there is a commitment to the goal, and an understanding of the guideposts along the way, the destination will never be in doubt.
Data Governance Business Case
Data is an intangible asset, which makes valuation challenging. However, skeptical executives will require a solid justification for investing in a new capability like Data Governance. Although a quantitative ROI may not always be possible, a business case should reflect concrete metrics and targets for a Data Governance program. The business case should include competitive and industry trends, and where possible, peer benchmarks. Above all, the business case should provide a compelling rationale for action, and for funding
Arroyo Seco supports our clients in developing a consensus business case that provides the call to action for developing a Data Governance capability.
Data Governance Program Design
Enterprises just beginning their Data Governance journey are faced with some critical decisions, such as:
Where will Data Governance sit in the organization to best bridge between IT and business?
Who do we enlist in the business organizations to support our effort, and what skills should they have?
How are we going to measure success, and what are our targets and timeframes?
What tools and technology do we need, and how do we choose?
How will our executive team give the Data Governance team direction and oversee our progress?
We help our clients launch their Data Governance program with a phased design that allows them to start small, and expand over time.
Strategic Assessment and Roadmap
Through a series of workshops with your Data Governance team, Data Governance Council, executive sponsors, Data Stewards, and other stakeholders, we help you to identify the strengths and gaps in your existing Data Governance capability. We work with you to develop concrete actions you can take to mature your program to the next level. Our assessment covers organizational alignment, skills and enablement, organizational change management, Governance methodology and process, metrics and dashboarding, and governance software tools and technology.
Enterprise Data Architecture
One of the key elements of a successful enterprise-wide roll-out of a Data Governance program is the enterprise Data Architecture, sometimes also called a Subject Area Model. This artifact is a conceptual taxonomy of structured enterprise data in purely business terms. It is not a physical data model, nor even a normalized logical data model.
The Enterprise Data Architecture defines data domains, manages data ownership, helps avoid redundant data, and supports data integration. Once a Data Governance program extends beyond one or two domains, the Enterprise Data Architecture is critical to managing the data catalog and a successful roll-out. It also supports implementation of Master Data Management, another element of a broader data management capability.
We work with your enterprise architecture group and Data Governance team to develop an Enterprise Data Architecture, implement it in your Data Governance toolset, and leverage it to define data ownership and manage your Data Governance program.
Enterprise Content Taxonomy
The Enterprise Data Architecture addresses structured data. But enterprises implementing a unified Data Governance program need a taxonomy of their unstructured content as well.
Like the Enterprise Data Architecture, the Content Management Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of enterprise documents and other content, with particular attention to documents representing formal records, such as invoices, receipts, contracts, etc. The Enterprise Content Taxonomy allows document types to be mapped to the Master Retention Schedule.
We assist the Records Management group to compile a comprehensive inventory of document types and organize them into a taxonomy that is easy to navigate, understand, and maintain. More importantly, it becomes a key enabler of a holistic Data Governance capability addressing documents as well as databases.
