The Politics of Master Data Management & Data Governance

Mapping the Political Landscape

Information Management Magazine, March 2008

Dan Power

The technology is the easy part. Understanding what drives people - individuals, societies, what makes cultures clash - all of those questions are way, way harder to answer than how to solve any particular technical problem.
– Dean Kamen, inventor/entrepreneur¹

The field of master data management (MDM) is developing quickly. MDM hubs from large technology vendors, such as Oracle, IBM and SAP, and smaller vendors, such as Siperian, Initiate Systems and D&B/Purisma, are maturing rapidly. Because MDM is growing so quickly, systems integrators have been piling into the space, repurposing their other methodologies and rebranding their resources. But getting the technology right - selecting the right software products and implementing them well - is only part of the challenge.

MDM is a set of disciplines and processes for ensuring the accuracy, completeness, timeliness and consistency of the most important types (or domains) of enterprise data across different applications, systems and databases, multiple business processes, functional areas, organizations, geographies and channels.

Whenever a business activity crosses so many boundaries within a large organization, there are going to be political issues. Experience shows that to be successful, your MDM strategy needs to take that into account and to embrace it.

Just as a good program management office (PMO) needs experienced project managers, a successful MDM initiative needs a politically savvy leader within the organization who can drive the project, keep senior management engaged and supportive, allow the business to “own” the initiative but keep IT involved as a supporter and facilitator, address the cultural issues and, most importantly, balance the need for quick wins and securing and keeping the funding while maintaining the longer-term vision and architectural integrity that will keep the MDM program from becoming just another island of data.

One big mistake to avoid is not to realize how political the whole MDM process really is. Ambrose Bierce, a U.S. author and satirist, wrote: “Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.”

In other words, you’ll see the same jockeying for position, the same personality conflicts and the same turf wars in an MDM initiative that you’d see on any large project involving both business and IT. In fact, MDM projects can be worse, because they typically involve marketing, sales, finance, customer service and potentially other powerful groups within the company.

The very nature of MDM is responsible for the degree of its political difficulty. Take an important domain of master data that is critical to the success of the business, such as customers or products. Then go across all of the different business processes and functional areas that touch or own the data in that domain. Then go down into each and every important “silo” of data - applications, systems and databases - in that domain. Then throw in the implementation of new, potentially disruptive technology, the redesigning of a large number of business processes, and having to change the organization’s culture and attitude toward the importance of managing information as a corporate asset. It should be no surprise that an MDM initiative has the potential to be the most politically charged project your organization has seen in quite a while.

What To Do About It

Start by understanding the landscape and having a plan. Now that you realize how important the political dimension of MDM is going to be to your project, think it through. Map out the important constituencies involved in your project - sales, finance, operations, etc. If your company is large enough, make sure to include all of the important geographies where you operate.

Take the current organization chart (if you can find it or create it) and diagram the leaders of each area and their important direct reports. Indicate in your map their attitudes toward one another, both personally and politically. It doesn’t have to be very elaborate, but the goal is to avoid being surprised later by political issues or animosities you could have anticipated.

In planning for the political dimension of your MDM project, keep in mind that you’re going to have to deal with both the initial phase - securing the funding and then actually doing the implementation - and the ongoing phase. There are still many companies out there who think that when their MDM implementation goes live that the initiative is over. In reality, it’s just beginning.

Organizational Change Management

The need for data governance sets MDM apart. The continuing political framework takes ownership of the data, manages it proactively, resolves issues and disputes that arise over time and sets policies within the organization for information management, security and privacy, data quality, etc.

Two key disciplines to apply during the initial and ongoing phases are education and communication. Best practices here include electronic newsletters, internal portals, “lunch and learn” sessions and attending internal departmental meetings.

In many ways, these are the same tools and techniques used on large customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) initiatives - because they work! An organized approach to organizational change management can make the difference between a challenging but successful implementation and a morass of political wrangling and internecine warfare.

Become an internal evangelist for MDM in your organization. Have your 30-second elevator pitch down cold, and then develop a five-minute version of the strategy as well as a 15-minute, 30-minute and 60-minute version. Use every opportunity you get to educate people within the organization on what MDM is and what your company’s MDM strategy is, then use all of the communications tools at your disposal to keep people involved.

MDM can sound like plumbing to a lot of people, so go out of your way to find the business wins that you are generating - increased revenue, better alignment with strategy, cost reduction, improved customer service, more efficient compliance, etc. - and document, quantify and publicize them.