From Data Governance by design to Data Governance as a Service: A transformative human-centric data governance framework

Abstract

Nowadays, companies and governments collect data along every phase of a product/service lifecycle. The data is acquired and stored in various and continuous ways, contributing to a large and unique data fingerprint for every product/service in use. Thus, establishing policies, processes and procedures (P3) around data and subsequently enacting those to compile and use such data for effective management and decision-making is extremely important. Data governance (DG) plays an essential role in a dynamic environment with multiple entities and actors, complex IT infrastructures, and heterogeneous administrative domains. Indeed, not only is it beneficial for existing products/services, but it can also support appropriate adjustments during the design of new ones. This research provides an overview of the existing literature and current state-of-the-art in the domain of data processing and governance aiming to evaluate existing approaches and to investigate their limitations. To this extent, this study introduces a novel approach for data governance as a service (DGaaS), which provides a framework for (private or public) organizations that facilitate alignment with their vision, goals and legal requirements. It is flexible and adaptable to the needs of the different sectors, and aims at increasing the value of data and minimize data processing related costs and risks.