3 Data Governance Strategies to Become Data-Driven: Tableau Bootcamp

Do you know which data governance strategies best fit your organization? One of the big decisions of your organization that you will make on your transformation to become data-driven is what type of governance you should put into practice for your data and content. Preferably, the governance model you choose should be secure, while also allowing your employees to utilize the available data to make improved decisions. In Tableau Bootcamp, you’ll come across three governance models that the Tableau blueprint represents.

Here are the three types of governance models that are in real-time practice in different industries:

• Centralized
• Delegated
• Self-Governing

Centralized

Generally, the IT department is only one central department that holds your entire data and controls the analytics environment. They categorize the data sources, collect data and reports, and make them accessible to your analysts and other business users across the organization. You can opt for a centralized data governance model because of the following reasons:

1. Users can handle the project with fewer data literacy or skills in the entire organization
2. The data needs are enormously sensitive and require profound control and monitoring over the users who have access
3. You have an existing traditional top-down IT or data strategy that isn’t varying anytime presently

Here are some of the possible drawbacks of a centralized strategy:

1. The owners get loaded up with access requests from throughout the business that results in lengthy procedures and time-consumption for business decisions or sometimes gets made without the correct information.
2. The word never gets out to the rest of the business that the reports or data exist for business owners to use because they haven’t been engaged in preparing it. Your investment is never fully utilized.
3. You can never embark upon the data and analytics skills-gap existing in your organization.

Delegated

In a delegated model, the possession and liability of the data are given to personnel outside of the central IT team, which hold positions of Site Managers or Project Leaders in Tableau Server for changing permissions. Delegated requires wide-ranging processes in a position to authenticate and verify data that is published. In a number of delegation models, it may come under the centralized team to verify finished content by the delegates.

There are the following reasons to have a delegated model of data governance in your organization:

1. Data literacy is required in several areas, but still needs enhancements in other areas.
2. Some of the data is sensitive and is still required to be handled responsibly by a central team only.
3. Your organization is conducting a gradual transition towards self-governing or independence.
4. You have to verify the user’s content earlier than certifying it as data expertise is still being constructed.
5. Reporting and data requests are surpassing a centralized team’s ability to produce.

Here are some latent difficulties of a delegated strategy:

1. You would need an inclusive method of certifying and validating data and content that is marked by users saying they understand the process.
2. A special training scheme for users is necessary to allow them to generate good content. A little or no training will result in the generation of poor content or a combination of poor and good content, without any appropriate data literacy.
3. Site Administrators or Project Leaders need to take training to make sure that they understand the tones of the roles in Tableau Server.

Self-Governing

The various employees of the organization produce content and data regularly, either by the creators on the desktop or by explorers in web edit. Every user, including viewers, has some level of data-literacy. Ad-hoc or sandbox content vs. certified content is distinguished, and the procedure of endorsement to certification is apparent and definite. Analytical skills should be good throughout the organization among all business users.

There are the following reasons to have a self-governing model in your organization:

1. Data literacy is good throughout the organization, and users need to be able to find answers to their own questions by using data.
2. Require fast reporting to exceed the supply by a centralized team.
3. Your company holds an open data policy in your organization where all employees are allowed to view most of the data sources, excluding sensitive data.

Here are a few shortcomings of a self-governing strategy:

1. It is required to separately monitor your Tableau Server environment and its ability to scale up
2. Generating custom admin reports on the basis of the Tableau Server data to track who has accessed what may be essential for directive requirements
3. Needs suitable and frequent training for all users at all stages, either at a Creator, Explorer, Viewer, or Admin level

Conclusion

It is really important to understand the value and role of data that exists in your organization, and moreover, it is required to keep the sensitive data safe and protected from the hands of the viewers and users who can misuse the role of this data. Therefore, you should always startup by building a suitable data governance strategy for your organization that fits perfectly with the needs of your business.

For doing so, you need to have a complete understanding of your existing data and business needs. Then only you can evaluate and examine different types of models to implement in your organization. The three above explained strategies are mostly used by companies to tackle their data needs and manage them efficiently. Evaluate your needs and find the most suitable one for you.

Tableau puts tremendous effort into helping people to change the way they use data and provide a unified view of data on a single screen with a different range of dashboards. If you are not aware of all the policies and regulations that are associated with various governance models, you have to understand it’s the usage and practical implementation in a real-time world.

Join Tableau Bootcamp and get complete training to understand and analyze data effectively with a wide range of data dashboards. ExistBI offers a unique Tableau Bootcamps in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.