The business takes up data governance

Leading firms recognize data governance as a prerequisite to the success of many other initiatives. Accordingly, data governance has reemerged with vigor, gaining newfound visibility. However, according to the November 2010 Global Master Data Management Online Survey, 70% of the 113 IT professionals responding reported data governance efforts that are primarily IT-driven.

Forrester notices increase in the number of programs that are enterprise-driven in which both business and IT participate equally, and this trend is significant. Large-scale enterprise business process, BI transformation, and advanced data quality initiatives have historically delivered below expectations or have failed outright because organizations did not prioritize and take responsibility for governing the business confidence in and trustworthiness of their data. This has been a hard lesson to learn, but the business must participate in data governance for enterprise data and process initiatives to succeed.

Forrester expect companies with good data governance practices to continue to be a minority over the next three years, although a significant and growing one.