8 Best Data Governance Books Every Data Practitioner Should Read in 2024
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We have curated the best books on data governance written by industry experts. To make sure that this list is objective, we’ve shortlisted the publications on the basis of readers’ opinions.
Best Data Governance Books for 2024
- Disrupting Data Governance by Laura Madsen
- Data Governance: How to Design, Deploy and Sustain an Effective Data Governance by John Ladley
- Non-Invasive Data Governance: The Path of Least Resistance and Greatest Success by Robert S. Seiner
- Data Governance: The Definitive Guide by Evren Eryurek, Uri Gilad, Valliappa Lakshmanan, Anita Kibunguchy-Grant, Jessi Ashdown
- Data Governance: Perspectives and Practices by Harkish Sen
- Get Governed: Building World Class Data Governance Programs by Morgan Templar
- Data Stewardship: An Actionable Guide to Effective Data Management and Data Governance by David Plotkin
- The Chief Data Officer Handbook for Data Governance by Sunil Soares
Disrupting Data Governance by Laura Madsen
Laura Madsen’s book comes to the rescue of business owners and team leaders who are finding it difficult to find their way around modern expectations from data governance.
As this book’s publisher pitches it, it “shows you how to redefine governance for the modern age.” Madsen indulges the reader with her decades of experience, detailing industry-defining interviews with other best-in-field experts and first-class research.
She explains the challenges, common yet often misplaced beliefs, and discusses how a fundamental shift in understanding is taking place; confessing that governance is not about restricting data usage, but instead supporting it.
Who is it for?
It’s lauded as a must-read book for anyone responsible for data or analytics in their organization and the leaders they report to.
The author uses simple language and relatable examples to convey why traditional data governance doesn’t work today, what we can do differently, and that everyone in an organization can contribute to improving their data usability.
Data Governance: How to Design, Deploy and Sustain an Effective Data Governance Program by John Ladley
John Ladley’s classic data management book guides you through the complete and extensive overview of how to design, grow, start, and execute your own data governance programs in the most successful ways - proven time and time again by readers and organizations that have adopted this approach.
Who is it for?
“Data Governance” is for any executive, manager, or data professional who needs to understand or implement a data governance program. This resource is a comprehensive guide for all beginning professionals, managers, or anyone looking to improve their processes or for advanced students in Data Management and related courses.
Non-Invasive Data Governance: The Path of Least Resistance and Greatest Success by Robert S. Seiner
The traditional command-and-control model of data governance doesn’t work. It’s too invasive, and it creates resentment and resistance. Seiner understands this impact and thus produced this book to offer a new, non-invasive approach that has been proven repeatedly to be far more successful.
With this book as your guide, you’ll learn how to implement a non-invasive data governance program that will gain the cooperation and support of your entire organization. You’ll also find out how to avoid the common pitfalls that can doom a data governance program to failure.
Who is it for?
This book will serve you well if you’re part of any data governance policy committee, risk management, or business intelligence team, and are looking for a way to improve your current accountability for data management. The publisher also states that it will help you improve your formal communications, information protection, and overall data quality.
Data Governance: The Definitive Guide by Evren Eryurek, Uri Gilad, Valliappa Lakshmanan, Anita Kibunguchy-Grant, Jessi Ashdown
As one of the most highly-rated data governance books, it’s for anyone who wants a comprehensive guide to data governance. It covers everything from data governance principles and practices to tools and techniques.
It starts with the basics, such as defining data governance and its objectives, and then moves on to more advanced topics such as data governance frameworks, roles and responsibilities, and organizational structures.
The book includes case studies and real-life examples of these processes in action, all of which are designed to help you improve efficiency.
Who is it for?
According to the publishers, this book is ideal if you’re a chief information official, security officer, or you otherwise work with data on a higher management level, specifically if you’re working with data in the cloud. Anyone working with security, privacy, and other forms of governing standards would do well to familiarize themselves with the teachings of this book.
Data Governance: Perspectives and Practices by Harkish Sen
This book will answer questions like: What is data governance? Why is data governance important? Who is responsible for governing data? How can we improve the fitness of our organization’s data?
This resource is one of the best books on data governance when it comes to insights and approaches you can use to help you take control of your organization’s data. It elaborates on how by assigning responsible parties and ensuring that data remains well-understood and protected, you can improve the overall “data fitness” of your organization.
Who is it for?
You’ll get the most benefit from this book if you’re a professional working in the IT, security, or business sectors, and you aim to bring successful data governance practices to your organization. This particular book takes a very hands-on approach, complete with actionable steps and case studies.
Get Governed: Building World Class Data Governance Programs by Morgan Templar
This is the literal textbook for data governance professionals, offering an easy-to-comprehend path toward proper and complete data governance. You’ll quickly see why governance matters as Templar guides you through the benefits this kind of attention to the process can bring to your organization. Within the chapters, you’ll find proof of a clear roadmap to success that will keep you entertained with stories of how data governance has made a difference in the lives of customers, employees, and businesses of all kinds worldwide.
Who is it for?
As the title suggests, this data management book is about building world-class data governance programs, which means if you’re involved with governance programs of any kind, this book is for you. Know more about practices and processes that can be applied to businesses both big and small, and in any industry.
Data Stewardship: An Actionable Guide to Effective Data Management and Data Governance by David Plotkin
This data governance book includes the latest strategies in the data stewardship discipline, including integrating it into project management, managing data stewardship in multinational corporations, handling “big data” and data lakes, and reevaluating the data stewardship approach from a business/organizational function to a data domain standpoint.
Who is it for?
This book is predominantly laid out and written with large, international-sized companies in mind. It’s a recommended resource for all organizations that handle big data and/or work with data lakes. If you are in one or your business has invoked a data stewardship role or is planning to in the future, this book is most certainly for you.
The Chief Data Officer Handbook for Data Governance by Sunil Soares
Chief Data Officers (CDOs) were developed as a role to deal with the challenge of managing information as a strategic asset in a company, but there is no universal ‘playbook’ for this job. The rapidly growing amount and intricacy of information and data in the modern age, even from smaller businesses, has never before been seen in human history.
What’s more, with the addition to regulatory compliance in regards to information, and its varying counterparts around the world, traversing the world of data is a difficult one.
However, Sunil Soares provides a practical manual that will help CDOs manage information as a resource while providing the trustworthy data required to drive corporate ventures from tactical to transformative. In addition, he also sheds light on the data governance team’s responsibility of establishing policies to optimize, safeguard, and leverage information as a business asset by aligning the objectives of various operations.
Highly rated, this is one of the data governance books no Chief Data Officer will want to miss.
Who is it for?
This data management book is specifically written and published with Chief Data Officers in mind. It’s designed to be the be-all-end-all handbook that details everything a professional in this position needs to know. Judging by the reviews, it does a good job of delivering the promise.
Data governance books: What’s next?
Without a doubt, data governance is a multifaceted process – one that often causes anxiety in organizations. However, it’s worth remembering why data governance is there in the first place, i.e., it’s about helping data teams work better together. If you are championing data governance in your organization, or are just getting started on understanding it, these are a few books that you can definitely turn to.
Atlan: Effortless data governance for the modern data stack
The entire data management space is going through a paradigm shift.
The data world is slowly converging around the best of the tools for processing large amounts of data, a.k.a the “Modern data stack”
Data governance for the “Modern data stack” needs a rethinking.
This is where Atlan comes to your support — A data catalog and data governance solution built for agility, trust, and collaboration.
Read more:The data governance renaissance in the modern data stack!
A demo of Atlan data governance and data catalog capabilities
Data governance books: Related reads
- Data Governance in Action: Community-Centered and Personalized
- Data Governance and Its Importance in the Modern Data Stack
- Data Governance Framework — Examples, Templates, Standards, Best practices & How to Create One?
- Snowflake Data Governance — Features, Frameworks & Best practices
- Open Source Data Governance Tools - 7 Best to Consider in 2024
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- Benefits of Data Governance: 4 Ways It Helps Build Great Data Teams
- Data Governance Roles and Responsibilities: A Quick Round-Up
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- The 3 Principles of Data Governance: Pillars of a Modern Data Culture
- A Guide to Gartner Data Governance Research — Market Guides, Hype Cycles, and Peer Reviews
- 5 Popular Data Governance Certification & Training in 2024
- 8 Best Data Governance Books Every Data Practitioner Should Read in 2024
- Automated Data Governance: How Does It Help You Manage Access, Security & More at Scale?
- Data Governance and Compliance: Act of Checks & Balances
- Data Governance vs. Data Management: What’s the Difference?
- Enterprise Data Governance — Basics, Strategy, Key Challenges, Benefits & Best Practices.
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