The world of data management has changed substantially in recent years, but data governance hasn't kept pace. New governance practices and organizations are needed to be compatible with agile, big data, cloud, and self-service. Moving from control to community, from enforcement to prevention, from controls to services, and from committees to communities are at the core of data governance evolution.

Traditional data governance practices need to adapt to the realities of today’s data management practices. We need to start with the ABCs of modern governance — Agile, Big Data, and Cloud. Each of these has been in the mainstream for several years, yet most data governance organizations cling to practices of the past. More recently, self-service analytics and self-service data preparation have challenged the old governance methods.

Traditional data governance focuses on enforcement of policies and rules using rigorous controls and gates. While controls and enforcement continue to be needed, they must be complemented with support for the autonomy and agility of the self-service world. Enforcement works together with prevention. Guides and guardrails reduce the need for gates. The need to exercise controls is minimized when curating, coaching, crowdsourcing, and collaboration are integral parts of governance processes. In the modern data world, every data stakeholder plays a part in data governance.

• Where governance fits within modern data ecosystems, from point of ingestion to reporting and analysis
• How various technologies support governance through the ecosystem
• Process challenges for governing self-service; supplementing controls with collaboration and crowdsourcing
• Engagement models for governing self-service
• Organizational challenges for governing self-service; moving from data stewards to stewardship, curation, and coaching
• Operational challenges for governing self-service; implementing a combination of gates, guardrails, and guides

• Data governance professionals of all types
• Data stewards and data curators
• Business and technical leaders implementing and managing self-service data and analytics
• Business and technical leaders who see current data governance practices as barriers to agility
• Chief Data Officers and other executives responsible to shape data culture
• Everyone with a role in modernizing data governance or an interest to know how and why data governance must change