Critical success factors for data governance: a telecommunications case study

Abstract

Previous research has not focused sufficiently on the activities that are required to introduce an effective data governance programme. This is coupled with the fact that the strategic importance of data governance is growing. As result, this research study aims to identify the critical success factors (CSF) for data governance and the associated recommended actions that would enable organisations to introduce an effective data governance programme. This paper reports on a single case study in a large telecommunications service provider in Saudi Arabia. The data are (1) gathered through semi-structured interviews that follow the CSF approach and (2) analysed by applying open, axial, and selective coding techniques. The findings of this research are presented as nine CSFs, which are ranked in order of importance, and include actions recommended for each CSF. Based on our case analysis, having ‘business-driven data integration strategies’ was the most important factor for data governance.