Newsletter - February 2026

Data Governance - The Old and the New
 
LMs and real-time analytics are said to be making traditional methods of data governance far less effective. 

Tiankai Feng describes perfectly a shift many data professionals are likely feeling. 
Organisations want to use AI, but AI needs speed and quantity from the data it uses. Not to mention quality. 

Traditional gatekeeping doesn't seem to scale well in this environment, and trying to map every legacy table before a model can touch it often results in the business value disappearing before the first query is even run.
 
Find Out More
 

Where Data Quality Problems Really Sit

Data Quality Problems Are Usually Management Problems.

Data quality is consistently proclaimed the biggest issue in data organisations - but the real issue is rarely technical.

Too often, we see poorly handled data assigned to outdated tools and dashboards. 

But, in reality - it’s how the data is understood and managed across the business.

Why Governance Needs Clear Roles

“Governance doesn’t collapse from lack of effort. It collapses from unclear roles.” 

Yes, as Mathieu Le Guével states, the reason why data governance initiatives often collapse isn't for a lack of effort, but is more to do with role clarity. 

When you expect one person to be the documenter, the fixer, AND the decision-maker, you're looking at a potential bottleneck waiting to happen. 👀

Therefore, it is crucial to recognise at least three types of roles in an organisations data governance initiative: 

🟣 The lead: someone to architect the operating model. 
🟠 Data steward: quality managers.
🟡 Data owner: the business decision-maker who arbitrates trade-offs.

Find out more here

New DAMA UK Member Resource Area

In support of our mission to continually provide valuable content and practical resources for our members, DAMA UK is delighted to launch our new Member Resources area.

It’s early days - but over the coming months we’ll be adding practical guides, checklists, templates, and tools specifically designed to support smaller organisations with their data initiatives.

You can get started today by:
✅ Using our Data Maturity Assessment tool
✅ Exploring our helpful data glossary

We’re building this resource hub with our members in mind - and there’s much more to come!

👉 Take a look and watch this space:  https://www.dama-uk.org/pages/members-resources

New Sponsor!

DAMA UK is thrilled to announce its latest sponsor - SelectZero.

SelectZero is a data observability platform helping organisations  maintain data quality and trust in their data at scale.

It’s designed to bring together multiple capabilities with notable features including automated data validation and alerts, a business glossary for shared definitions, data lineage to understand pipeline impact, a quality-driven data catalogue, and data profiling to identify anomalies and changes.

By ensuring clear visibility into data health, SelectZero aims to reduce errors, prevent downstream issues, and improve confidence in analytics and reporting. 

👋 Welcome to the DAMA UK community - here’s to stronger, more trustworthy data!
👉 You can learn more about SelectZero by visiting their website here.

Diary Dates

IRM Conference

From 23 to 27 March 2026, you can join fellow data leaders at an immersive five-day event which promises to revolutionise your understanding of Data Governance, AI Governance & Master Data Management. 

With a 10% discount for DAMA UK members. Find out more here 👉 Tickets-DG-AIG-MDM-2026 - IRM UK and email [email protected] to get your discount code.

We’re delighted to announce a brilliant new opportunity, available exclusively to DAMA UK members.

Join DAMA-UK committee members for a live, interactive “Ask DAMA-UK” session where we answer your questions on:

- Data governance best practice
- CDMP certification and career progression
- Data maturity and operating models
- Common organisational challenges
- The future of data management
- How are people ensuring they have AI ready data

One not to be missed - register here Members Only - Ask DAMA-UK: Your Data Questions Answered Live | DAMA UK

Finally, we would like to say a HUGE thank you to our brilliant sponsors, who support DAMA UK on our mission to nurture a talented community of data professionals championing the value of data management across the UK.