Improving data maturity with a data governance assessment

Data governance for tackling data challenges

Data governance is essential for achieving top-priority goals such as becoming data-driven, deriving value from data, ensuring compliance, and enhancing business intelligence. Challenges such as poor data quality, the wrong mindset, insufficient skills and expertise, and a lack of clear strategy and vision hinder effective data management and utilization.

Implementing robust data governance addresses these challenges by ensuring the quality, security, and availability of your data. It also guarantees compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. This foundation allows you to derive strategic insights, reduce risks, gain a competitive advantage, and better respond to customer needs and market demands.

Assessment to determine the state of data governance

Effective data governance is essential for unlocking the value of your data. To enhance your data governance, you must first understand its current state within your organization. A data governance assessment evaluates your existing practices, structures, and processes.

Following the assessment, you will receive tailored recommendations for improvements and a roadmap to address gaps and elevate your data maturity. This assessment is a critical initial step toward enhancing your data governance and enabling truly data-driven operations.

Cegeka’s data governance assessment

To assist organizations with this vital first step, Cegeka offers a comprehensive Data Governance Assessment. This service includes an in-depth analysis of your data governance, followed by a detailed report and roadmap for improvement. This foundation supports any subsequent projects, where Cegeka can collaborate closely with you to achieve higher data maturity.

In-depth analysis

Over several weeks, one or two Cegeka consultants will conduct a thorough examination of your organization. While we can analyze the entire organization, for larger entities, we often focus on a specific (data) domain, department, or area of interest to maintain manageability.

Our consultants will interview key personnel involved in data initiatives and review relevant documentation, such as business plans with data objectives, policy documents, planning materials, and other related records. This comprehensive approach ensures a deep understanding of your current data governance landscape.

The four pillars

Our Data Governance Assessment is based on four components.

#1 Organisation

How is data governance anchored within your organization? This pillar examines the structure and role of governance at the highest levels. We assess the responsibilities of various stakeholders, the involvement of senior and C-level management, data strategies and goals, the existence of a dedicated data team, and the overall awareness of data's potential role.

#2 Policy, standards, and processes

What policy guidelines, standards, and processes are in place? This component reviews all existing policies and procedures related to data management and governance. We evaluate their clarity and how effectively they are documented, communicated, and adhered to within your organization.

#3 Data quality management

How is data quality managed? Poor-quality data undermines the effectiveness of data governance. We investigate the controls in place to ensure data quality, including the availability of data quality rules, implementation of validation procedures, and the use of automated tools to monitor data quality.

#4 Technology

Is your organization well-equipped with the technological infrastructure for data governance? We assess your use of tools and systems for data modeling, metadata management, and data cataloging. Additionally, we analyze the integration of these technologies with your data governance processes and the security of all systems and data. Depending on your current technological setup and goals, it may be necessary to implement data governance or master data management tooling to achieve the desired maturity level.

DAMA DMBOK Framework

Our assessment leverages the renowned DAMA DMBOK framework for information and data management. While incorporating all components of the framework, we ensure a pragmatic approach, eliminating lengthy procedures for data access or authorization. This allows us to start immediately.

Results report and roadmap

The Data Governance Assessment results in a comprehensive report detailing your organization’s maturity level (or the specific domain examined) across various components. We assess maturity on a scale from initial (1) to optimized (5): initial (1), managed (2), defined (3), quantitatively managed (4), or optimized (5).

The report clearly identifies strengths and weaknesses, the capabilities required to advance to the next maturity level, and our top recommendations. We present these findings in an on-site presentation for clarity.

Additionally, you receive a roadmap for a potential follow-up project, outlining the ideal path to achieving a higher maturity level.

Achieving greater maturity with Cegeka

If you choose to pursue a follow-up project, we work in close cooperation with you to define the desired maturity level. We then create a Project Definition Document (PDD), which includes a detailed plan for further data governance implementation, covering objectives, scope, timeline, resource requirements, and concrete actions.

The plan’s actions are jointly executed by your organization’s employees  and Cegeka consultants, ensuring all necessary knowledge and skills are embedded within your organization. During the implementation of data governance it's essential to train people and guide them through the change process. The implementation phase is a crucial stage where adoption and change management play a key role. The implementation process of data governance typically spans several months.

Elevate your organization's data maturity

Aspire to a higher level of data maturity? Contact Cegeka today to discover how our Data Governance Assessment can benefit you or complete our data governance mini-assessment to determine your organization’s data maturity in just five minutes.