Governance Organization¶

Overview¶

The Governance Organization defines the structure, roles, and responsibilities necessary to manage data as a strategic asset across the enterprise.
It ensures accountability, standardization, and alignment with business objectives while providing oversight for data quality, security, and compliance.

This section provides an overview of governance bodies, role definitions, and decision-making frameworks that guide enterprise-level data management.

Governance Bodies¶

The governance structure is composed of three primary layers:

1. Executive Steering Committee¶

Purpose: Provides strategic direction, approves policies, and allocates resources for enterprise data initiatives.
Membership: C-level executives, VP-level sponsors, key business leaders.
Responsibilities:
Approve enterprise-wide data policies.
Review key metrics and KPIs.
Ensure funding and resources for governance initiatives.

2. Data Governance Council¶

Purpose: Operational oversight of data governance activities across domains.
Membership: Data owners, domain leads, IT representatives, stewards.
Responsibilities:
Prioritize data initiatives.
Resolve cross-domain conflicts.
Validate compliance with policies and standards.

3. Domain Data Stewardship Committees¶

Purpose: Ensure day-to-day management, quality, and integrity of data within specific domains (e.g., Customer, Vehicle, Dealer, Product).
Membership: Domain data stewards, subject matter experts.
Responsibilities:
Define data definitions, business rules, and quality standards.
Monitor compliance with governance policies.
Report issues to the Data Governance Council.

Roles and Responsibilities¶

Role	Responsibility	Reports To
Data Owner	Accountable for the quality, integrity, and usage of data in a domain. Approves policies, monitors KPIs.	Executive Steering Committee
Data Steward	Maintains data quality, enforces policies, and monitors compliance. Supports data lifecycle processes.	Data Governance Council
Data Custodian	Implements policies in systems, manages technical data assets, ensures security & access.	IT / Technology Team
Domain Lead	Coordinates stewardship activities within a domain, ensures adherence to definitions and standards.	Data Governance Council
Data Consumer	Uses data for analytics, reporting, and operations in accordance with policies.	N/A

Note: Responsibilities may overlap depending on domain complexity. RACI charts can be used to clarify accountability across teams.

Decision-Making Framework¶

Strategic Decisions: Made by Executive Steering Committee (e.g., enterprise-wide policy adoption).
Operational Decisions: Made by Data Governance Council (e.g., resolving conflicts between domains).
Tactical Decisions: Managed by Domain Data Stewardship Committees (e.g., data definitions, quality rules).

Decision Matrix Example:

Decision Type	Owner	Approver	Reviewer	Notes
Policy Approval	Data Owner	Executive Steering Committee	Data Governance Council	Enterprise-wide
Data Definition	Domain Lead	Data Steward	Governance Council	Domain-specific
Data Quality Issue	Data Steward	Domain Lead	Council	Escalate if unresolved

Reporting and Communication¶

Weekly / Monthly Reports: Each committee reports KPIs, data quality scores, and issue status to the next level.
Escalation Path: Critical issues escalate from Domain Committee → Data Governance Council → Executive Steering Committee.
Documentation: All roles, decisions, and meeting outcomes are logged in the Data Governance repository.

Visual Representation¶

graph TD
    A[Executive Steering Committee] --> B[Data Governance Council]
    B --> C[Customer Domain Data Stewardship Committee]
    B --> D[Vehicle Domain Data Stewardship Committee]
    B --> E[Dealer Domain Data Stewardship Committee]
    B --> F[Product Domain Data Stewardship Committee]
    C --> G[Data Stewards & Custodians]
    D --> H[Data Stewards & Custodians]
    E --> I[Data Stewards & Custodians]
    F --> J[Data Stewards & Custodians]

Key Takeaways¶

Clear roles and responsibilities are critical for governance effectiveness.
Structured committees ensure oversight at strategic, operational, and tactical levels.
Decision-making frameworks and reporting structures provide accountability and transparency.
Governance organization must be scalable for regional expansion (North & South America).