Good governance must begin with knowing what information you have and where it is stored – after all, you can’t do anything with it if you can’t find it. So nearly every project I work on includes an inventory, and yours must too.
And there it is; the world’s shortest post. Thank you!
Oh wait, there’s more.
The Devil’s in the Details
There are a couple of details that make conducting a thorough inventory harder to do than to say. Using my opening statement as a jumping off point,
- “What information you have” has several dimensions including its content (subject), format (Word, PDF), medium (paper, electronic), and document type (invoice, contract).
- “Where it is stored” means everywhere it is stored, not only the “official” version but all the drafts, duplicates, copies sent as email attachments, temporary downloads, etc.
- And then there’s the context in which your information exists and is used. This may be difficult to fully capture because it includes both hard data and anecdotal evidence regarding attributes like: who created it, when, and on what platform; who else received it, when, by what means, and why; which systems and business processes it flowed through, in what order; and what ultimately happened to it.
Tools are Cool, But Folks are Bespoke
It’s only relatively recently that automated tools have become available to help us determine the “what,” “where,” and “when” parts of what we seek, at least on the digital side of things. But even today, their effectiveness relies heavily on instructions we give them based on what we think we know about our workflows and our people. And as for the “why,” well, that’s entirely on us as human beings.
Happily, the tools are getting better all the time: more comprehensive, more detailed, more accurate. Finding those that can work in your environment and interoperate with whatever you’re already got is key – as is involving the people who understand your business drivers and various workstreams.
Inescapable, That’s What You Are
The need to inventory is inescapable. Admittedly, it is unglamorous work, but it’s essential to developing a roadmap to addressing whatever goal you’re pursuing: cutting storage costs, ensuring retention and audit compliance, feeding your AI engine, migrating to the cloud … pretty much anything you can think to do.
Done properly, the result serves as the foundation of every governance decision that follows: what to keep, what to discard, what to protect, what carries risk, and what holds untapped value. You can’t know any of this if you don’t first know what you have, where it can be found, and why it exists.
Got governance plans that will require an information inventory? Ping me today and let’s make it happen!