One of the benefits of running an online data quality and data governance community is that over the course of many interviews, you start to see common threads and patterns emerging in the way practitioners create success in their data-driven programs.

Data governance is a relatively new discipline, so it’s interesting to crowd-source the approaches and pick out some of the tactics that frequently appear.

Here is a list we’ve identified from past interviewees; hopefully it can benefit those of you planning data governance initiatives in 2014. If you have further suggestions, why not post them in the comments section below?

Help leaders visualise the past, present and future: Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you will no doubt have witnessed the rise of the infographic: “a graphic visual representation of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly.” You need to create a strong visualisation strategy for winning over and retaining the support of executive managers. A number of our interviewees cited the need for simple visualisations to support that goal. Creating an infographic to quickly outline the current situation regarding data at a departmental or even company-wide level can certainly help in this regard. If you back these up with some simple dashboards and more interactive visualisations, you can demonstrate to your leaders where the pain points lie within their scope of influence.

Create action-oriented metrics that are business-friendly: One of the common themes our interviewees have discussed is the need to only present metrics that are actionable to the intended audience. For example, simply stating a high-level accuracy metric for equipment data is meaningless if it does not allow action to be taken by operational leaders. If the metric was "wasted truck rolls from equipment inaccuracy," then the leader now has the ability to take action.

Present the holistic value of data governance: This was another common trait cited for good data governance leadership. Executives are used to focusing on financial performance and staff allocation, but they also operate in an environment where politics is always a concern. This is why backing a data governance initiative can often cause fear amongst management. They want results, but they don’t want to risk their personal reputation on something that isn’t in their comfort zone. One way around this is to help leaders demonstrate how their decision-making on data governance will support not just their area under control, but the whole organisation.

Create a rock-solid operational plan: Once you’ve convinced an executive of the need for data governance, his attention will shift to the topic of operational implementation. This is where you need to be investing a serious amount of attention. If this is your first initiative, it helps to observe how other organisations have implemented data governance programs. For example, you can study past presentations from data governance conferences that featured similar organisations to your own. In addition, there are plenty of books available on data governance. You’ll also be pleasantly surprised at how open to discussion past presenters and interviewees are on the programs they’ve implemented, so feel free to ask questions.

Obviously this will only take you so far. Your operational plan will be unique to your organisation, but the most vital aspect of the plan is to outline precisely what is required of management. Presenting your plan to each stakeholder individually before committing to a broader group presentation was also cited as a useful tactic.

These are examples that practitioners commonly cite as important starting points for launching data governance initiatives. What else would you add to the list? Please share your ideas in the comments below.