Welcome
There are many web sites about governance, and many about content management. Most seem to have a technology focus – using software tools, specifying information systems, exploiting the web and social media, and so on.
This site is for governance authors – the people in an organization who write guidance for people in the organization.
Compliance and risk
This site is mainly about compliance and risk – not only in the narrow sense of regulatory compliance (although that’s part of it) but in ensuring that your organization meets its obligations and commitments, without unexpected, unplanned risk.
Governance documents
Governance documents (however they are stored and accessed) govern what your organization does, and how it does it. Some examples are: business policies; contracts; leases; product & service specifications; terms & conditions of supply; advertisements; regulations.
They also define or imply some risks to your business. Some risks are planned and managed. Problems arise from unplanned, unexpected risks, often caused by ambiguity, omission or inconsistency.
Governance authors
Governance authors are the people in an organization who have responsibility for its governance documents. If you are one, you would deal with governance documents in two contexts:
- Documents that originate within your organization, such as your contracts with your customers or employees
- Documents that originate from outside, such as regulations and industry-standard agreements, which you need to react to
Policies and rules
“How an organization does what it does” is governed by business policies and rules. A major risk is that policies and rules look well-formed and unambiguous, but are based on definitions that are ambiguous, inconsistent, informal – or exist only in the minds of the beholders. For example, how many meanings for ‘customer’ might a business have? And how well is consistency of meaning managed when ‘customer’ is used in policies and rules?
Governance vocabularies
To develop and manage high-quality governance documents, governance authors need reliable, consistent business vocabularies.
There are useful vocabularies available, but many are focused on information system specification. When you write the policies and rules for how your people deal with a customer or supplier, you mean the rules for dealing with the person or organization – rules for using the data that will be stored about them are only part of what’s needed.
Our site
This site will focus on authoring of business governance for business people, and vocabularies to support this. We hope – with your cooperation and contributions – it will grow into a useful resource for governance authors. See our Resources, Blog, Events and Links pages.
Our LinkedIn Group
We have a Governance Authors LinkedIn Group. You may like to join it, but you don’t have to – the site is available to all.