How to Enforce A Data Governance Policy

A data governance policy or standard outlines the main data rules and expectations that your organization follows and enforces. An organization’s data policies and standards define the principles and practices regarding the organization’s data. When your data is well-structured with policies and standards in place, it helps streamline and enhance the usage of that data. 

What a Data Governance Policy Includes

When creating a data governance policy or standard, it often includes:  

• Data security policies and standards: Rules and expectations that protect data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification or destruction, and that ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data.
• Data privacy policies and standards: Requirements and rules that ensure an organization respects the rights and preferences of data subjects, and ensure the organization complies with the legal, regulatory and ethical obligations that apply to personal data.
• Data quality policies and standards: Expectations and rules that ensure the accuracy, “freshness” and completeness of the data, and that ensure that internal and external consumers can trust data and make decisions based on it.

Why Enforcement Is Important 

Enforcing the data governance policy is vital, it helps you to establish and maintain data discipline and consistency in your organization, as well as enhancing trust and confidence in your data. Requiring data governance policies and standards also helps you avoid the negative consequences of non-compliance, such as penalties, fines and lawsuits.  

How to Enforce the Policies

To enforce data policies and standards, it is imperative to implement and monitor data controls and audits in your organization. These mechanisms and methods verify and validate the compliance and adherence of your data with established data policies and standards. 

Data controls and audits involve the following steps:

• Implementation: Design and deploy the data controls that check and enforce the data policies and standards that apply to your data.
• Monitoring: Plan and conduct the data audits that measure and report the compliance and performance of your data, and that identify and address any data issues or gaps.
• Improvement: Review and update the data controls and audits that apply to your data to ensure that they continue to be relevant, effective and efficient. Incorporate the feedback and recommendations from data audits and implement corrective and preventive actions that improve your data compliance and performance.  

A data protection officer (DPO) can also help your team better adhere to the rules in place and help keep your data protected. 

Continuous Data Governance Policy Creation

Enforcing data policies and standards is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process that requires dedicated monitoring and improvement. By enforcing a data governance policy and standard, you can ensure that your data is secure, compliant and reliable, and that it supports your data governance goals and objectives. Get the support you need with data standards and policies by booking a meeting with our team of experts.