> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://www.mlcompendium.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://www.mlcompendium.com/data/engineering-intro/data-governance.md).
# Data Governance
Someone has to own who may change the data and what “good” means across teams. The page starts with definitions of data governance, then moves to guides for building it in Snowflake and a thorough survey article, and ends with concrete action items and starting steps.
Governance decides the rules that the fabric enforces and the lineage records. The same notes are in [Data Fabric](/data/engineering-intro/database-architecture-and-modeling.md#data-fabric) and [Data Lineage](/data/engineering-intro/data-lineage.md).
The first definition is the [Definition](https://www.cleverrepublic.com/what-is/data-governance/) page from Clever Republic, a consultancy that implements data governance, with the definition taken from DAMA. The DAMA image it once pointed to no longer opens and is kept at the end of the page. [What is](https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/data-governance/) is Imperva's shorter version: data governance is a set of practices and processes for managing important data across an organization, with frameworks and tools to help.
From definition to build: How to build [part 1](https://www.phdata.io/blog/snowflake-data-governance/) is Nick Goble on why data governance controls are critical for consistent, dependable data and how to set them up in Snowflake. [part 2](https://www.phdata.io/blog/snowflake-data-governance-2/) continues with access controls, arguing that Snowflake needs a defined information architecture, a process for providing access, and a group responsible for managing those rules and patterns. For the whole field in one place, [a very thorough article](https://bi-survey.com/data-governance/) is the BARC survey piece, and the figure below comes from it.
a very thorough article
Reading is not starting, so the page ends with what to do first. The [action items](https://data.wisc.edu/data-governance/) are the data governance page of UW–Madison's Data, Academic Planning & Institutional Research office. [8 steps to start your data governance program](https://www.analytics8.com/blog/8-steps-to-start-your-data-governance-program/) is Jenna O'Jea's step-by-step guide to a data governance strategy fitted to the organization, with its components and benefits.
## Deprecated links
{% hint style="warning" %}
These links and images no longer work. The original wording is kept here. A same-resource copy, when one was checked, is used above.
{% endhint %}
* DAMA. This address no longer opens:
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