There are still organizations, or pockets inside organizations, that have yet to implement data standards. Their information is fragmented and their processes run hotter, slower, and noisier than they ought to. Adopting standards in these environments is tough but necessary.
Wayne Eckerson reviews the two approaches normally taken to standards adoption, and concludes that you need a mix of both. He calls the approaches Trojan Horse and Executive Fiat. In the first, you try to smuggle standards in via an important or widely supported project, and aim to demonstrate the wider benefits of standards through the project's success. In the second, the boss tells everybody to get with the standards, or... or, well, okay, whatever.
Bottom-up or top-down? You have to meld the two approaches. The Trojan Horse needs executive support. The Executive Fiat needs a behavioral change program with possible changes to incentives.
I particularly like Eckerson's point that an organization can regard itself as data-driven without having a shared data vocabulary. It's anomalous, but it happens. Data governance folks must recognize the contradiction and work to heal it through effective implementation and leadership. TechTarget
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