Hottest Data Governance Trends You Need to Know for 2017

I have just returned from one of the most targeted data governance events out there - the ASUG data governance SIG. This is a collection of the brightest minds in data governance brought together to help other companies build and grow their data governance and stewardship programs.As I traveled home to the MKE, I considered the common threads that resonated throughout the hallway discussions, keynotes, and breakout sessions presented over the three days. The following topics summarize a few that stuck out in my mind:

It was evident from the sessions and hallway discussions that the impact of Digital Transformation is being felt within the governance community. New data channels created by transformational technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), social media, and robotic process automation (RPA) will create both opportunities and challenges for data governance and data quality organizations. Characteristics like the scale, volume, velocity and variation (SVVV) of these channels differ significantly from the characteristics associated with the traditional domains of master data management and data governance. The differences will likely require governance organizations to embrace methodologies that are less rigorous and explicitto manage data quality and standards in order to meet the agility demanded by these digital business processes. Adoption of  inference based or fuzzy techniques may be required to ensure that an approach which balances the value of governance with the value of the SVVV characteristics for these channels to maximize the benefit to the organization.

The adoption of tools that provide visibility into data quality, such as SAP Information Steward, appeared to be widespread across the companies present. The visibility provided by these tools are considered a foundational step for a governance organization to be able to communicate the impact and effectiveness of data standards on business processes.