Making your metadata governance program for unstructured content sustainable

AKneifel and Associates An Information Management Consultancy

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Copyright © 2012. A.Kneifel and Associates. All Rights Reserved.

Making Your Metadata Governance Program for Unstructured Information Sustainable

Alix Kneifel

6/26/12

Presented at:

2012 Data Governance and Information Quality Conference (DGIQ)

AKneifel and Associates

An Information Management Consultancy

7/30/2012 Copyright © 2012. A.Kneifel and Associates. All Rights Reserved. 2

Agenda

Definition of information governance

Benefits of information governance and governing metadata on

unstructured information

Information governance components

8 common pitfalls relating to information governance

8 do’s and don’ts for a sustainable information governance

framework

Questions and Answers




Definitions

Information Governance

A active framework for enabling an organization to manage its information

as a business asset. It includes people, policies, standards, and processes

for reducing ambiguity and risk and for enabling an organization to

effectively use it information to achieve business goals.




Characteristics of a sustainable

metadata governance program

Create a metadata governance program that can be used for today’s

and tomorrow’s needs

Useful

Data Integrity

Scalable

Reliable

Predictable




Benefits of information governance




Embraces a broad perspective:

Engages the appropriate people in the organization

Aligns terms, data, business processes and business needs

Sets priorities for implementing change: systems, processes, products,

end users, etc.

Provides structure and order at an operational level

Defines, disambiguates, relates and maps

Prevents unauthorized changes, minimizes disruptions to the user

environment

Benefits of information governance




Benefits of governing metadata on unstructured information

Small data set

Pain point for everybody!

Metadata on unstructured information is a

data set that crosses functions

Data values may come from master data

or taxonomy




Information governance framework

Data Stewards

WHO

Governance Committee

and decision structure

WHO

Change management

process

HOW Operating Guidelines

and Procedures

WHEN, WHERE

Policies and standards

WHY

Metadata Baseline

WHAT

Operational functions

• Organizational Participation • Lifecycle Management • Solution Quality • User Experience

Business alignment




Common governance pitfalls

1. Unclear metadata objectives

2. Missing governance components

3. One governance framework for everything

4. An ineffective governance committee

5. An ineffective change management process

6. No metadata history exists

7. Metadata free-for-all (users know best!)

8. An outdated metadata governance framework




Governance Pitfall 1: Unclear metadata objectives

Issues

Metadata objectives are not clearly defined Improve information findability

Support Records & Information Management (RIM)

Protect information

Associate related information

Include information into the ‘pool’ of transactional data or products

Strategy

Meet the organization’s goals and end user needs

Be implementable! Start with industry standards (e.g., Dublin Core, ISO/IEC 11179)




Governance Pitfall 2:

Missing governance components

Data Stewards

WHO

Governance Committee and

decision structure

WHO

Change management

process

HOW Operating

Guidelines and Procedures

WHEN, WHERE


WHY

Metadata WHAT




Governance Pitfalls 3:

One governance framework for everything

Issues

Too much emphasis on ‘governance’ and not on ‘what’ is being governed

Strategy

Develop separate governance frameworks for different data sets

Combine frameworks that overlap




SMEs, IT/System Owners, other Stakeholders Extended


An ineffective governance committee

Issues

Governance committee members don’t know why they’re on the board

The sponsor doesn’t champion the cause

All members come from IT (or business functions)

Committee meetings are poorly attended!

Strategy

Include advisory and doing governance roles

Define an authority model that works for the board

Define the governance committee during the development phase

Sponsor

Governance Board

Chair Content owner reps

Business application reps IT system reps End user reps

Advisory

Doers

Data Stewards





The change management process is ineffective

Issues Out-of-balance authority between change approvers and implementers

Changes are approved but not implemented!

Changes are not made across all systems

Strategy Include all steps in the change management process

Assign roles and clear responsibilities to each step

Merit Assessment

Request Impact

Analysis

Resolution Validation Implementation




Governance Pitfall 6: No metadata history exists

Issues

No record of the governance committee’s decisions exists

No ability to compare the current metadata against the past

Changes are made directly to a system

Strategy

Retain the group’s decisions!

Manage the metadata as an artifact

Maintain artifacts of all changes to

consuming applications




Governance Pitfalls:

7. Metadata free-for-all (users know best!)

Issues Metadata exists but users still can’t

find information!

No metadata consistency across ECM sites

The organization isn’t achieving its goal to improve search across different applications

Strategy Create and manage an enterprise metadata

standard

Develop a taxonomy

Include end-user representatives on the governance board

Build user input into the process

Have a strategy to auto-populate metadata




Au

dits


An outdated governance framework

Issues

Meta data changes occur outside the governance process

More information findability complaints this year then last year

Strategy

Include an audit plan for implementation and use

Have a plan to continually monitor and adjust

the governance framework

Metadata to meet the business purposes

Data

Stewards

Committee

CM process

Operating

Procedures

Policies and

standards

Baseline ECM

PDM

CRM

SharePoint

RM system

Applications

Support RIM

Operational efficiency

Content findability

Associate related content

Accurate reporting

Business Purpose

Pe

rform

an

ce

As

se

ss

me

nt




Metadata governance sustainability dos and don’ts

1. DO clearly define your metadata business objectives

2. DO have a scalable governance framework that includes all

components

3. DON’T create one governance framework to govern everything

4. DO include members on the governance committee from across the

organization who have agreed to their roles and responsibilities

5. DO have a scalable change management process that includes all

steps

6. DO baseline your metadata and maintain it as an artifact

7. DON’T give end-users free rein of the metadata

8. DO monitor and improve your governance framework and your

metadata




Conclusion

Metadata is a practical dataset that connects unstructured information and

structured data to meet business objectives

Remember these essential components for a strong governance program

Metadata baseline

Governance committee


Data stewards

Change management process

Operating procedures

Remember these characteristics for metadata and governance sustainability

Useful

Data Integrity

Scalable

Reliable

Predictable

Avoid the pitfalls outlined in this presentation!




Q&A

Thank you for attending!

Contact Information:

[email protected]

(818) 326-6549


www.akneifel.com

mailto:[email protected]

Education

Making your metadata governance program for unstructured content sustainable