Posted: July 14th, 2022

Story: They Call Me Mr. Process

Story: They Call Me Mr. Process

My entire life, I’ve been a really organized person. As I was growing up, I always made sure that my bedroom was tidy, that my clothing were stored away, that my bed was made, and that I kept track of my grades. When I was younger, I used to become anxious if I was kept in the dark about something important. When I was in college, I immediately realized that organization was the most important factor in determining how successful I would be, and I’ve carried that same mindset with me into my professional career. Even when I had just graduated college and was starting my first job as a manufacturing engineer, I was eager to provide advice to my more experienced coworkers regarding methods to establish processes to improve the organization’s efficiency. It didn’t take long for someone to start calling me “Mr. Process,” and I quickly embraced the moniker. In spite of the fact that the name was typically met with a few smirks, I found the name to be quite endearing, and I continued to refer to myself by it whenever I participated in job interviews later on in my career.

Mr. Process obviously finds processes to be important in an organization, and processes are absolutely vital in the management of enterprise content. Without well-defined processes, even good enterprise content will quickly tend toward chaos. Without these processes, there is no control over how data are modified and maintained. Data need to be managed. The importance of data management policies can be better understood with an example from my own work experience.

In the early 1990s, I joined a software development company as the vice president (VP) of product development. At the time, the company only had 13 employees, but they dealt with a significant amount of information because they had sales of $3.5 million per year and over 1 million customers. Enterprise content included a large customer database, large repositories of software source code and documentation, and reams of technical support information. The small staff was having difficulties trying to stay abreast of day-to-day operations and had consequently paid no attention to the management of these important collections of valuable content. Mr. Process did not like this at all.

During one of our weekly executive staff meetings, I raised the issue of enterprise content gone wild. I explained to the members of the staff how it was virtually impossible to locate and identify all of the software source code we were supposed to be working with. I offered examples of how our source code was being modified with proper controls and how it was difficult to even build products because of unauthorized changes. I told them how the technical support staff (who I was in charge of) were unable to find past support information on customers and how they were forced to enter the same information multiple times, and how they could not access historical information so they could learn from a knowledge base. These were just some of the complaints I lodged.

Of course, the chief executive officer (CEO) asked me what I thought should be done to improve the situation. When I responded “data governance” I just received blank stares from around the table. I explained that data governance involves instituting well-defined policies and procedures for the management of enterprise content and also making sure that even the changes to policies and procedures were only made with proper authorization and approval. I expected a great deal of enthusiastic support for this outstanding suggestion, but instead the CEO simply said “How much will this cost?” Unfortunately, my response was not really what everyone wanted to hear. I was not, however, asked to leave the room, so I continued.

It was actually not that hard to show the executive staff how much money we were losing from inadequate data governance. It was relatively easy to show how an investment in data governance would quickly pay for itself and help structure the company for future growth (this last part everyone understood and liked). Data governance became a part of the company that day. Because of our small staff count and the fact that I was already known there as Mr. Process, I now held the cotitles of “Mr. Process” and “Data Governor.”

I began my tenure with a full Assessment of the enterprise content, the data sources, and the current processes used. There was a lot of room for improvements that were quickly identified merely by getting the information organized. For example, we implemented a source code control system with secure access rights that required all software engineers to check their code in and out of the system and have approvals on code changes before check-in could take place. I estimate that our software engineering department’s productivity increased by 30% the day this system was running. A relatively simple issue-tracking system was implemented in the tech support department, which ensured that all support calls were logged and shared for future reference. This system enforced strict data governance on all technical support information and saved significant money for the company. These are just some of the examples of changes made that were part of a larger data governance plan for the company.

Moral of the Story

If the shoe fits, wear it. I’m proud to be called Mr. Process because there have been so many times in my career that I have seen the positive result achieved by instituting good processes in an enterprise. I did not always know what the term data governance meant, but I have always known that if you do not have well-defined processes in place for management of the data in an organization, then the data will not be nearly as useful as it could be. Even the processes must be managed so they stay current and effective. Data governance and the processes it manages must be a key part of any healthy organization.

Assignment

The preceding story demonstrates how processes play a key role in enterprise content management. Without good processes, content will quickly tend toward disorganization and inefficiency. Data governance helps ensure that policies are in place and maintained so the content management will be effective for the future. For this discussion, research the library and Internet for information about data governance, and respond to the questions below. Consider how the company in the story had to face some of these questions and how they addressed similar issues.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

How do you think data governance impacts the processes used to handle data in an organization?
What steps should be followed to properly evaluate an organization’s processes that are related to content management?
Select 1 area of data governance, and describe how data would be handled with and without data governance policies in effect.
Discuss the effect on the business as a result.
Designing an Enterprise Information Infrastructure

Student Full Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Full Title
Instructor Full Name
Due date
Designing an Enterprise Information Infrastructure
How do you think data governance impacts the processes used to handle data in an organization?
Data governance is a system used to handle data by defining the processes of accessing and usability of data assets within an organization (Olavsrud, 2019). Data governance has a significant impact on the process of handling data in an organization, including creating a structure of storage, retrieval, use, distribution, and disposal of data eliminating data duplicates, data errors, and unnecessary data.
What steps should be followed to properly evaluate an organization’s processes that are related to content management?
When evaluating an organization’s processes related to content management, it is essential to understand all aspects that exist and those required. Steps that can be followed for the Assessment processes include:
Evaluating cost compared to value delivered: This step involves evaluating the organization’s content management worth in terms of content productivity, protection, and time factors.
Determining the right amount of complexity: The Assessment in this step involves accessing the essential functions related to content management that enable effective business process management. The content management processes should offer uncompromised security and ensure each problem is resolved.
Security levels: Security levels are essential in the content management of an organization. Evaluating the vendors’ security controls used by an organization provides an opportunity to understand the level of security deployed by the organization concerning content management.
The ability to find the right resources: Evaluating a company’s content management ability to find and support the business process with the right resources is a significant Assessment step. This step mainly focuses on how an organization offers its customer content, which should be available, accessible, and secured.
The balance between business needs and technology: The last step of evaluating an organization’s processes related to content management is accessing if the content management software or technology can meet the business needs, including availability, accessibility, and security (Peacock, 2011).
Select 1 area of data governance, and describe how data would be handled with and without data governance policies in effect.
Data quality: The data quality area of data governance involves ensuring the data usability is conducted in a manner that does interfere with the data integrity and quality. With data governance in place, data quality will be achieved due to the use of content management software and usability policies that ensure data is well secured in databases and servers. The data governance policies guide employee use of data, including requirements for data protection such as password and other encryption measures in place. However, without data governance policies, data quality can not be achieved due to various aspects. For instance, the lack of data backup offered by the data governance policies will result in the loss of the original data making it difficult to retail the data quality. Other incidents such as data manipulation and editing will also affect the data quality in the absence of data governance policies.
Discuss the effect on the business as a result.
The organization that experiences data quality breakdown due to a lack of data governance policies could face adverse consequences. For instance, protecting sensitive information such as high valued contracts and business processes becomes difficult when the company can not maintain data quality, resulting in the loss of investors. Lack of governance policies exposes the business to external and internal cyber-related attacks, which could be devastating to the company when such attacks successfully compromise the data quality. The business also could face hefty fees, penalties, files, and compensations when its data quality is compromised, affecting its stakeholders or shareholders.
References
Olavsrud, T. (2020). What is data governance? A best practices framework for managing data assets. CIO.com. Retrieved from https://www.cio.com/article/3521011/what-is-data-governance-a-best-practices-framework-formanaging-data-assets.html
Peacock, M. (2011). 5 Tips to Evaluate Content Management Platforms in a Changing Enterprise. Retrieved from: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/5-tips-to-evaluate-content-managementplatforms-in-a-changing-enterprise-009816.php

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