Why data governance fails at compliance and how to fix it

Why governance fails to align with compliance

For most organizations, identifying compliance goals and writing governance policies that align with them is straightforward. Problems arise when those policies go into practice.

1.     Governance doesn't reflect real-world conditions

A common pitfall is writing governance policies that fail to capture actual data flows, resource states and processes. For instance, a governance policy might state that the business will back up its databases hourly, but some databases are so large that copying them takes more than an hour, making it impossible to fully implement this policy.

Avoiding this shortcoming requires assessing actual business conditions, which requires policy authors to engage with the stakeholders who work with the business's resources daily. They're the ones who know what is achievable from a governance perspective.

2.     Unclear stewardship

Governance policies are of little value if no one implements them, and the policies don't assign clear ownership or stewardship of tasks. As a result, no one carries out the policy because everyone assumes someone else will.

The fix is to include clear stewardship designations in governance policies that state which teams or roles are responsible for meeting governance obligations.

3.     Inadequate resources for policy enforcement

Applying governance policies requires staff and funding. Organizations that fall short can't put policies into practice.

Adequate funding for the teams responsible for governance enforcement is one way to mitigate this challenge, as are automations that minimize the time and effort required to operationalize governance.

4.     Sluggish governance operations

Similarly, businesses may struggle to operationalize governance policies quickly enough to meet compliance requirements. For instance, they might not perform audits as frequently as a compliance framework requires, or they may fail to update governance processes quickly enough when they roll out new software.

Increased funding and automation investments can help here as well, giving teams the tools they need to ensure that governance keeps pace with compliance mandates.

5.     Insufficient incentives

Sometimes, teams have the time and resources to pursue governance goals, but they fail to do so because they don't deem them important enough. The underlying cause is often cultural, arising in businesses that view governance and compliance as box-ticking exercises rather than a way to create real value.

The remedy is to invest in education that helps stakeholders understand the real impact healthy governance and compliance practices have on the organization. For instance, effective data security protections not only help the business meet its compliance obligations but also mitigate the stress and disruption employees would face in the event of a data breach.

6.     Changing compliance mandates

Compliance frameworks change often, and new rules roll out regularly. If organizations fail to update their governance operations accordingly, they risk falling out of compliance.

The risk isn't just that an organization won't update its policies fast enough. Policies can change while practices and tooling don't, leaving the updated policy unenforced in practice.

How to keep data governance and compliance aligned

Mitigating these challenges requires investments in modern governance and compliance processes, including the following:

• Automated controls. The fewer governance and compliance obligations employees must handle manually, the lower the risk of compliance failure. Automated controls, or tools that automatically enforce governance rules without human intervention, go far toward aligning governance and compliance.
• Continuous monitoring. Similarly, detecting governance failures in real time helps businesses identify issues and fix compliance problems rapidly.
• Automated report generation. The easier it is for teams to generate reports about governance and compliance status, the more likely they are to share this information with other stakeholders. Tools that automatically compile evidence and generate reports aren't a substitute for human involvement, but they streamline the tedious parts of reporting, leading to more efficient and impactful governance insights.
• Clear accountability guidelines. Establishing clear rules about who is responsible for implementing governance policies prevents situations in which no one acts because everyone thinks compliance is someone else's job. Ideally, tools automate accountability by reminding stakeholders of their obligations and following up if they don't fulfill them.
• Regulatory change management automation. Regulatory change management tools help automate the discovery of new or updated compliance rules that affect a business, reducing the risk of gaps in governance and compliance strategy.

Maximizing the value of governance operations requires embedding governance controls and processes into business systems rather than defining policies and leaving employees to enforce them. That automation is even more important as privacy, retention and AI regulations intensify, making traditional, manual compliance architectures impractical.

Chris Tozzi is a freelance writer, research adviser, and professor of IT and society who has previously worked as a journalist and Linux systems administrator.