Data analytics and Artificial Intelligence play an increasingly pivotal role in most modern organizations. To keep those initiatives on track, enterprises must roll out data governance programs to ensure optimal business value. Data governance has become a fundamental element of success, a key to establishing the component of the data integrity framework in any business. The most successful data governance programs use a business-first approach, delivering quick wins and cultivating sustained success throughout the organization. Unfortunately, many organizations neglect to implement such programs until they experience a negative event that highlights the absence of good data governance. That could be a data breach, a breakdown in data quality, or a compliance action that highlights the lack of effective controls. Once that happens, there are several different paths a data governance initiative might take. A typical scenario often plays out this way: The executive team calls for implementation of a company-wide data governance program. The newly-minted data governance team forges ahead, engaging business users throughout the organization and expecting that everyone will be aligned around a common purpose.