Data governance

Data governance is a term used on both a macro and a micro level. The former is a political concept and forms part of international relations and Internet governance; the latter is a management concept and forms part of corporate governance. Data governance is a term used on both a macro and a micro level. The former is a political concept and forms part of international relations and Internet governance; the latter is a management concept and forms part of corporate governance. Here data governance refers to the governing of cross-border data flows by countries. It is a new field; it consists of 'norms, principles and rules governing various types of data.' Here the focus is on an individual company. Here data governance is a data management concept concerning the capability that enables an organization to ensure that high data quality exists throughout the complete lifecycle of the data. The key focus areas of data governance include availability, usability, consistency, data integrity and data security and includes establishing processes to ensure effective data management throughout the enterprise such as accountability for the adverse effects of poor data quality and ensuring that the data which an enterprise has can be used by the entire organization. A data steward is a role that ensures that data governance processes are followed, guidelines enforced, and recommends improvements to data governance processes. Data governance encompasses the people, processes, and information technology required to create a consistent and proper handling of an organization's data across the business enterprise. It provides all data management practices with the necessary foundation, strategy, and structure needed to ensure that data is managed as an asset and transformed into meaningful information. Goals may be defined at all levels of the enterprise and doing so may aid in acceptance of processes by those who will use them. Some goals include