Governance could become embedded

The need for high data quality and strict regulatory compliance is a common motivator within companies and will likely remain so. According to BeyeNetwork contributor Wayne Eckerson, however, the location of governance programs in the corporate structure may soon change. He explained that, rather than remaining a separate function, it will soon be embedded in analytics.

Eckerson explained that companies need to have a strong business case before launching into governance in earnest. He noted that many programs created to do nothing but enforce governance suffer from low demand and have to shut down. A decentralized model could change that for the better.

Preparing data for business intelligence usage is better with governance. When and how those policies should be applied, however, is open for debate. In Eckerson's view, the ideal place for governance is within analytics projects themselves, where business users will pay attention to it to make sure the program as a whole succeeds.

Business intelligence is a growing field, but some elements of it have remained steady. For example, there is still a risk that issues with data quality will arise. A recent Techgoondu report indicated that the rise of business intelligence projects run by non-IT users will not make data care and preparation any less important.