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Take Your Protein Pill and Put Your Helmet On - Launching Data Governance Into the Empty Vacuums of an Organization

Wednesday, June 5, 2024
02:45 PM - 03:30 PM
Case Study

Studies show that the average organization fails at least twice in its efforts to form an effective data governance program. But the changing landscape of regulation has put organizations in a position where compliance dictates that failure is not an option.

Like many organizations, when faced with the mandate to create an effective data governance program, Oregon Child Welfare had to sort through the myriad of existing, siloed data efforts to clearly define roles and responsibilities between technical and business collaborators and demonstrate near-immediate business value to an executive class who, although supportive, had other things to think about.

In order to accomplish these objectives, we determined that it was necessary to create a highly adaptable framework of data governance, which could grow and evolve over time.

The key initial features of our program included:

  • Clearly defined roles and responsibilities – in an organization where tech had long been the de facto data governance entity, it's necessary to create a clear delineation between architecture, data quality efforts, and data governance, and what roles were needed for each;
  • Development of a self-directed, bottom-up data governance structure – like many organizations, executive churn threatens the survivability of agency-wide initiatives at ODHS. Our data governance structure needed to be responsive to executive needs while simultaneously functioning in a quasi-independent capacity;
  • Implementation of a Communications Plan and clear branding that targets education and communication to specific areas of the organization, and leverages end-user engagement to identify formal and informal data stewards;
  • Showing business value as soon as possible – we selected key data elements that have been known issues and began the process of data governance there. We developed and reported the metrics around these elements, including actionable fixes/changes that support higher data quality, and monetized the difference between maintaining the status quo and investing in system development to produce higher data quality.   


Michael Payne

Michael Payne

Operations & Policy Analyst 4
Oregon Department of Human Services

With a career spanning over two decades in both the public and private sector, Michael has established a reputation for excellence in the field of data analysis. In his current role as the leader of an 8-person data analyst team driving data quality and governance for the State of Oregon’s Child Welfare Program, his team’s unwavering commitment to data integrity has significantly improved program efficiency and effectiveness. His expertise in data governance has ensured commitment to the highest standards of data quality, leading to more accurate insights and better decision-making. His team’s work has been instrumental in shaping policies and strategies that have had a profound impact on the lives of children in Oregon. And their dedication to their role directly serves the agency’s mission to be a champion for the welfare of children and families in Oregon.

In his free time, Michael likes to travel and play mediocre punk rock in his band.

Tammy Freeman

Tammy Freeman

Operations & Policy Analyst 3
Oregon Department of Human Services

For over 20 years, Tammy has combined professional experiences in the higher education, private and public sectors. She has worked as an analyst for the State of Oregon for over fifteen years, and before that worked several years for a private software company. She has been Oregon’s liaison to the Administration for Children and Families, in charge of federal reporting, starting in 2014, and since then improving data quality has been her passion. Since 2020 Tammy has been working on the creation and implementation of the new Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), which was successfully submitted in 2023. She is an expert on Federal standards and compliance, and on implementing new standards in a government agency. In her free time, Tammy enjoys traveling, reading about history, and spending time with her family.