Governance Organization & Operating Models
Governance bodies — classify by authority and work type
Data Governance Steering Committee
Highest governance authority. Usually senior/cross-functional executives providing enterprise oversight, support and funding.
Clue: release funding, top executive sponsorship, unresolved strategic matter.
Data Governance Council (DGC)
Governance decision body managing initiatives, policies/metrics, issues and escalations within its authority.
Clue: approve governance policy, decide escalated cross-domain issue, review/adopt key governance/architecture artifacts.
Data Governance Office (DGO)
Ongoing coordinating office/function. Maintains enterprise focus on definitions, standards, owners/stewards and governance operating machinery.
Clue: ongoing coordination, workflow, definitions/standards administration, role coordination.
Data Stewardship Teams
Subject-area/project communities of business and technical stewards/analysts that work through definitions, rules, quality issues and project decisions.
Clue: domain-level working collaboration.
Local Governance Committees
Optional divisional/departmental governance layer operating under the enterprise framework when appropriate.
Figure 16 is a generic operating model, not a mandatory organization chart. Organizations adapt bodies and reporting relationships to context.
Memory hook
Sponsor → Decide → Coordinate → Work
- Steering = Sponsor/highest authority.
- DGC = Decide/oversee.
- DGO = Coordinate.
- Stewardship = Work through subject-area issues.
Operating-model types
Centralized
One governance organization oversees governance activities across all subject areas.
Clue: one center.
Replicated
Business units independently adopt the same operating model and standards.
Clue: repeat the same model; no central coordinating function is the decisive pattern.
Federated
A central governance organization coordinates multiple units so shared definitions/standards remain consistent while local participation/autonomy remains.
Clue: central coordination + distributed units.
Important warning
Centralized, Replicated and Federated are not a maturity ladder and no model is automatically “best.” Fit depends on organizational structure, culture, business model, regulatory environment, authority patterns and value/criticality of data.
Changed-fact drill
A company has the same governance playbook independently in every region → Replicated.
Now add an enterprise governance team that actively coordinates shared definitions/standards across those regions → Federated becomes the better label.
Source anchors: Chapter 3 pp. 75–78; Figures 16–17; Table 4.