This is a very detailed book on Data Governance, with a very strong focus on definitions, activities, and how they should relate to the business. As a data officer, I consider it the go-to resource for learning the precise definitions and activities related to implementing a Data Governance program.

I can't emphasize enough how many times the author reminds the reader that Data Governance is not a technology program, but a business one. Its focus is not on selecting a vendor and a technology product, but all about aligning business goals with making sure that information assets are managed properly. On Page 10, there's a very simple and big graph, showing that Data Governance is not Data / Info Management, even though they are of course related and serve towards the business objectives. Data Governance is related to using data to achieve goals, the first is about ensuring that data is managed, and these two should never be confused: "Data Governance is NOT a function performed by those who manage information."

I found the first four chapters particularly useful as a reference for clear definitions and overview of data governance domain, and its position in a company as a business program. The rest of the book goes into the details of actually setting up the process for data governance, defining the scope, assessing the information maturity, change capacity, and collaborative readiness of a company. Following these, there are the details of how to actually align the data governance program with business values, and then start doing the functional design, followed by preparation for roll-out and sustaining the program.

The following part from the book shows the true essence of the book in a a concise manner: "A data governance program really has one clear goal: to disappear. That may seem a bit enigmatic, especially since this book is about making data governance real. Nevertheless, it is true. Remember, you are deploying a new set of principles for treating a valuable asset in a much-improved manner. At the end of the day, the true mark of success is the organization treating its information as it treats its factories, supply chains, vendors, and customers. In the twenty-first century, no manager argues with standards for material handling, depreciation rules, or customer privacy. These are accepted business practices. There is no debate over whether you should have standards or controls. Yet it is easy to spread data all over an organization to the point that (a) it is excessively expensive to manage, and (b) you cannot find it, make sense of it, or agree on its meaning."

Another nice aspect of the book is that author almost always summarizes the pitfalls for various activities. It is good to see what kind of activities to be realized, what kind of deliverables to be created at the end of each activity, and it's also very valuable to know learn about the potential friction and resistance points, and how things can go astray. Having decades of experience, the author doesn't hesitate to give interesting examples from various companies where he implemented data governance programs.

Having said that, I wish the author was less abstract and generic: It'd be good if he took a case study, and maybe at the end of each phase's generic description, gave examples from an actual data governance implementation case. This would certainly enhance the reader's understanding. There are a lot of charts, and diagrams: almost 40 pages of checklists, and activity diagrams in the appendices alone! Seeing what and how they correspond to a real world example would be very nice indeed.

I can recommend this book to people who want to have an encyclopedic resource for data governance topic. The definitions are clear, the overview is great, positioning the program in a business is supported well with logical arguments and backed by extensive real world experience. ( )