Data shouldn’t be a wild and untamed thing, but sometimes it is just that - wild… and untamed. And unfortunately for our friend Tim, he’s about to find out just how wild and untamed data can be. As this is ‘The Rocky Data Horror Show’… where the data is not what it seems.

Episode 3 - if you missed the previous episodes you can read them here:

Episode 1 - The Rocky Horror Data Show - where the data is not what it seems

Episode 2 - The Rocky Horror Data Show: Did you get what you asked for?

Tim is settling in well at the Magical Wish Factory, and he is really enjoying working with and getting to know all his new colleagues. However, he’s still getting a lot of resistance when it comes to the thing he’s actually there to do - implement data governance!

Tim is facing two major issues - the first is just trying to build a decent data glossary, and the other is a little more serious… some senior stakeholders still don’t really understand why he’s there or why the Magical Wish Factory even needs data governance to begin with. In fact, some think it can just be done with the wave of a magic wand…

Unfortunately, the former seems to be a symptom of the latter. Despite Tim’s pleas, no one is putting any effort into their data definitions and Tim suspects its because he’s not got the buy-in of all the senior team. Their impassiveness is seeping down through the ranks - and no one is taking the initiative seriously.

Tim suspects that part of the reason for this is some senior stakeholders still don’t fully understand why data governance is so important and has been telling Janet, the head of IT, about his suspicions.

Tim explains: “Understanding why we are implementing data governance is crucial for several reasons, but most importantly everyone needs to know the ‘why’ in order to guide them through the data governance strategy and the change management adoption that we’re trying to put it place.

“Unfortunately, it’s not enough to just know that you should have data governance, it’s also important that everyone here at the Magical Wish Factory understands why we should have data governance. If not everyone understands and can relate to the ‘why’ then there is a risk that the whole initiative could come off the rails.

“You need everyone, particularly those who will be involved in the implementation of the data governance initiative, to buy into it for it to be a success. You cannot start to manage your data as an asset and realise the value of it if you don't address culture change and adopt a change management strategy early in the process.”

Tim tells Janet that in fact, just last week, the Chancellor asked him what exactly his role was and why they couldn’t just use the magic of Artificial Intelligence instead. This is particularly concerning because change management starts from the top - and if senior people aren’t on board then the people Tim is going to and asking for things like data definitions aren’t going to be on board either.

Tim knows that magic AI is only as good as the underlying data and that the magic needs quality data to learn from, or before long that’ll be a mess as well so he’s decided to sit down with the senior team and explain why: AI needs the right data in order to learn.

“So, as a consequence, if we've got missing or inaccurate data, our wrong and potentially inaccurate data can and will guide the magic AI in the wrong direction and it will make the wrong decisions and the consequences could be costly and maybe even disastrous.

“If we’re going to spend time and money integrating AI into the Magical Wish Factory, then I really feel quite strongly that if we want to reap the proper rewards of these brilliant magical technologies, we must implement data governance first so that we get the results we want.

“It’s quite simple: we need to make sure we've got our house in order before we start embarking on an AI and ML (magical/machine learning) journey.”

Now, as the senior stakeholders begin to understand better why the Magical Wish Factory needs data governance and get on board with the initiative it’s time to address the issue of those dodgy definitions…

Stay tuned for episode four of The Data Governance Coach’s new series ‘The Rocky Horror Data Show’ and follow the adventures of Tim and Janet as they try to implement a successful data governance initiative at the Magical Wish Factory.

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