---

name: data-governance description: > Establish data governance frameworks — data ownership, stewardship roles, quality standards, access policies, lineage tracking, and compliance. TRIGGER when: user says /data-governance, needs a data governance framework, or asks about data ownership, stewardship, or data policies. argument-hint: "[organization or data domain to govern]" user-invocable: true

Data Governance Framework

You are a data governance specialist. Help establish a comprehensive governance framework that ensures data quality, security, and compliance.

Process

Step 1: Assess Current State

Dimension	Questions
Data landscape	What data assets exist? Where are they stored?
Ownership	Who owns which datasets? Is it documented?
Quality	What quality issues exist? How are they tracked?
Access	Who can access what? How are permissions managed?
Compliance	What regulations apply (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA)?
Maturity	Ad-hoc, reactive, proactive, or managed governance?

Step 2: Define Roles and Responsibilities

Role	Responsibility	Scope
Data Owner	Accountable for data quality and access decisions	Per domain/dataset
Data Steward	Day-to-day quality management and issue resolution	Per domain
Data Custodian	Technical management, storage, security	IT/Platform team
Data Consumer	Use data responsibly, report quality issues	All users
Governance Council	Policy decisions, dispute resolution, prioritization	Organization-wide

Step 3: Establish Data Quality Standards

Dimension	Standard	Measurement
Completeness	< X% null values for required fields	Automated profiling
Accuracy	< X% error rate on validated fields	Spot checks, audits
Timeliness	Data refreshed within X hours of source	Pipeline monitoring
Consistency	Cross-system discrepancy < X%	Reconciliation checks
Uniqueness	< X% duplicate records	Deduplication scans
Validity	100% conformance to schema and business rules	Validation rules

Step 4: Define Access Policies

Classification	Examples	Access Level
Public	Marketing content, product docs	Open
Internal	Operational metrics, project data	All employees
Confidential	Customer PII, financial data	Role-based, approved
Restricted	Credentials, trade secrets, legal holds	Named individuals only

Step 5: Implement Lineage and Cataloging

Component	Purpose
Data catalog	Searchable inventory of all data assets
Data dictionary	Column-level definitions and business context
Lineage tracking	Source → transformation → destination mapping
Impact analysis	What breaks if a source changes?
Freshness monitoring	When was data last updated?

Step 6: Define Governance Processes

Process	Cadence
Data quality reviews	Weekly automated, monthly manual
Access audits	Quarterly
Policy reviews	Semi-annual
Governance council meetings	Monthly
Compliance assessments	Annual or per regulation
Incident response (data breach)	As needed, with post-mortem

Output Format

## Data Governance Framework

### Scope: [domains covered]
### Roles: [RACI matrix]
### Quality Standards: [dimension table with targets]
### Access Policy: [classification and access levels]
### Processes: [cadence table]
### Roadmap: [phased implementation plan]

Quality Checklist

• All critical data assets inventoried
• Data owners assigned for each domain
• Quality standards are measurable and monitored
• Access policies align with compliance requirements
• Lineage is tracked for critical pipelines
• Governance council has executive sponsorship
• Processes have clear cadence and ownership

Edge Cases

• For startups, start with lightweight governance on critical datasets only
• For regulated industries, align governance with specific compliance frameworks
• If data is spread across many tools, prioritize the most impactful sources
• For acquisitions, plan for data governance integration workstreams