Summary

Modern businesses aspire to be data driven, and technologists enjoy working through the challenge of building data systems to support that goal. Data governance is the binding force between these two parts of the organization. Nicola Askham found her way into data governance by accident, and stayed because of the benefit that she was able to provide by serving as a bridge between the technology and business. In this episode she shares the practical steps to implementing a data governance practice in your organization, and the pitfalls to avoid.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management
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Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Nicola Askham about the practical steps of building out a data governance practice in your organization

Interview

Introduction
How did you get involved in the area of data management?
Can you start by giving an overview of the scope and boundaries of data governance in an organization?
- At what point does a lack of an explicit governance policy become a liability?
What are some of the misconceptions that you encounter about data governance?
What impact has the evolution of data technologies had on the implementation of governance practices? (e.g. number/scale of systems, types of data, AI)
Data governance can often become an exercise in boiling the ocean. What are the concrete first steps that will increase the success rate of a governance practice?
- Once a data governance project is underway, what are some of the common roadblocks that might derail progress?
What are the net benefits to the data team and the organization when a data governance practice is established, active, and healthy?
What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen data governance applied?
What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on data governance/training/coaching?
What are some of the pitfalls in data governance?
What are some of the future trends in data governance that you are excited by?
- Are there any trends that concern you?

Contact Info

Parting Question

From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.__init__ covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The Machine Learning Podcast helps you go from idea to production with machine learning.
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Links

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

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