Data is the lifeblood of any organization, but it can also be a source of confusion, frustration, and risk if not managed properly.
That’s why you need a data strategy and governance plan to ensure that your data is accurate, consistent, secure, and aligned with your business goals.
In this blog post, we will show you how to build a data strategy and governance plan with Power BI, a powerful and flexible tool for data analysis and visualization.
We will also introduce you to some of the best power bi consulting services that can help you along the way.
Define your data culture and objectives
Your data culture is the set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how your organization views and uses data.
Your objectives are the specific goals that you want to achieve with data.
To define your data culture and objectives, you need to:
- Assess your current state of data maturity and identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement
- Engage with your stakeholders and understand their needs, expectations, and pain points
- Align your data vision with your business vision and mission
- Establish clear and measurable KPIs and success criteria for your data initiatives
Design an intelligent and collaborative security approach
Security is one of the most important aspects of data governance, as it protects your data from unauthorized access, misuse, or loss.
To design an intelligent and collaborative security approach, you need to:
- Identify the different types of data that you have and classify them according to their sensitivity and value
- Define the roles and permissions for accessing, modifying, and sharing data
- Implement security features such as encryption, authentication, authorization, auditing, backup, recovery, etc.
- Educate your users on the best practices and policies for handling data securely
- Monitor and review your security performance regularly
Create a report catalog and a data dictionary
A report catalog is a collection of all the reports that are available in your organization. A data dictionary is a document that describes the meaning, source, quality, format, and usage of each data element.
To create a report catalog and a data dictionary, you need to:
- Inventory all the existing reports that are created by different users or departments
- Organize them into categories or themes based on their purpose or audience
- Document their metadata such as name, description, author, date, etc.
- Provide links or references to access them easily
- Inventory all the existing data sources that are used by different reports or users
- Document their metadata such as name, description, owner, location, type, etc.
- Define the business terms and definitions for each data element
- Provide examples or validations for each data element
Certify datasets and employ row-level security
A certified dataset is a dataset that has been verified by an authorized person or team as reliable, accurate, and compliant with the standards and policies of the organization.
Row-level security is a feature that allows you to restrict access to certain rows of data based on the user’s role or identity.
To certify datasets and employ row-level security, you need to:
- Establish a process and criteria for certifying datasets
- Assign roles and responsibilities for certifying datasets
- Communicate and promote the certified datasets to your users
- Enable row-level security on your datasets
- Define the rules and filters for applying row-level security
- Test and validate the row-level security functionality
Control workspaces and roles
A workspace is a container that holds a collection of related reports, dashboards, datasets, and apps. A role is a set of permissions that defines what a user can do in a workspace.
To control workspaces and roles, you need to:
- Define the different types of workspaces that you need, such as personal, team, departmental, or organizational
- Define the different types of roles that you need, such as admin, member, contributor, viewer, etc.
- Assign the appropriate roles and permissions to each user or group
- Manage the lifecycle of workspaces, such as creation, deletion, archiving, etc.
- Monitor and review the usage and performance of workspaces
Align your data initiatives with your business objectives
Building a data strategy and governance plan with Power BI is to align your data initiatives with your business objectives.
This means that you need to ensure that your data activities are aligned with your data vision and goals and that they deliver value to your organization.
To align your data initiatives with your business objectives, you need to:
- Communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders regularly
- Solicit feedback and input from your users
- Measure and report on the outcomes and impacts of your data initiatives
- Celebrate and share your successes and learn from your failures
- Continuously evaluate and improve your data strategy and governance plan
