Governance Action Process¶

A governance action process is a predefined sequence of engine actions that are coordinated by the Governance Server OMAS.

The steps in a governance action process are defined by linked governance action process steps stored in the open metadata ecosystem. Each governance action process step provides the specification of the governance action to run. The links between them show which guards cause the next step to be chosen and hence, the governance action to run.

The governance action process support enables governance professionals to assemble and monitor governance processes without needing to be a Java programmer.

Examples¶

In the two examples below, each of the rounded boxes represent a governance action and the links between them is a possible flow - where the label on the link is the guard that must be provided by the predecessor if the linked governance action is to run.

The governance actions in example 1 are all implemented using governance action services. When these services complete, they supply a completion status. If a service completed successfully, they optionally supply one or more guards and a list of action targets for the subsequent governance action(s) to process.

The first governance action in example 1 is called when a new asset is created. For example the Generic Element Watchdog Governance Action Service could be configured to monitor for new/refresh events for particular types of assets and initiate this governance process then this type of event occurs.

The first governance action to run is Validate Asset. It retrieves the asset and tests that it has the expected classifications assigned. The guards it produces control with actions follow.

Governance actions from the same governance action processes can run in parallel if the predecessor governance actions produces multiple guards.

Example 1: Governance Action Process to validate and augment a newly created asset

Governance action processes can include any type of governance service. Example 2 shows an survey action service amongst the governance action services.

Example 2: Governance Action Process to validate and augment a newly created asset

Capturing lineage for a governance action process¶

The engine actions generated when a governance action process runs provide a complete audit trace of the governance services that ran and their results. The Governance Action Open Lineage Integration Connector is able to monitor the operation of the governance actions and produce OpenLineage events to provide operational lineage for governance action processes. Egeria is also able to capture these events (along with OpenLineage events from other technologies) for later analysis.

Governance Action Process Lifecycle¶

The diagram below shows a governance action process assembly tool taking in information from a governance engine pack to build a governance action process flow. This is shared with the open metadata ecosystem either through direct called to the Governance Server OMAS or via a open metadata archive (possibly the archive that holds the governance engine definition.

Once the definition of the governance action process is available, an instance of the process can be started, either by a watchdog governance action service or through a direct call to the Governance Server OMAS. Whichever mechanism is used, it results in the Governance Server OMAS using the definition to choreograph the creation of engine action entities that drive the execution of the governance services in the Engine Host.

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