Data governance is the formulation of policy to optimize, secure, and leverage information as an enterprise asset by aligning the objectives of multiple functions. Data governance programs have traditionally focused on people and process. Cost has historically been a key consideration because data governance programs have often started from scratch, with little to no funding. As a result, Microsoft Excel and SharePoint have been the tools of choice to document and share data governance artifacts. While the marginal cost of these tools is zero, they are often missing critical functionality. Meanwhile, vendors have matured their data governance offerings to the extent that organizations need to consider tools as a critical component of their data governance programs.
It is not always clear, however, what Β«data governance toolsΒ» really means. In this book, data governance expert Sunil Soares reviews a reference architecture for data governance software tools. He seeks to define the category called Β«data governance,Β» as well as lay out evaluation criteria for software tools, the vendor landscape, and the alignment with big data.