Governance Program Open Metadata Access Service (OMAS)¶

The Governance Program OMAS provides APIs and events for tools and applications focused on defining a transformation strategy, planning support for a regulation and/or developing a governance program for your organization.

Governance domains¶

Governance domains are the areas of an organization's operation that need a specific governance focus. Governance domains are represented by Governance Domain Descriptions that are referenced by the domainIdentifier property. This is an integer and by convention "0" means "applies to all domains".

Governance domains are managed through the GovernanceDomainManager client implementing the GovernanceDomainInterface

It is possible to set up a default list of domains using the createStandardGovernanceDomains() method. This will give you the following governance domain definitions:

Governance role¶

Governance roles identify the additional responsibilities that exist in the organization in order to support the governance domain. The governance roles are set up during the work to establish the governance domain. People are appointed to these roles (many of which are part-time, augmenting the existing roles in the organization) as the governance domain is rolled out.

Governance roles are set up through the GovernanceRoleManager client that implements the GovernanceRolesInterface. People can also be appointed to the governance roles through the Community Profile OMAS since they are types of PersonRoles and all methods that work with person roles can be used to work with governance roles.

Subject areas¶

Subject areas are topics or domains of knowledge that are of interest to the governance leaders.

Governance Program OMAS provides an interface to create subject area definitions that is implemented by the SubjectAreaManager client. The work is then handed off to the subject area owners:

• Digital Architecture OMAS supports the definition of reference data and quality rules for the subject area.
• Asset Manager OMAS supports the authoring of glossaries and the exchange of subject area information with other catalogs and quality tools.

Governance Definitions¶

A Governance Definition is a metadata element that describes the context or purpose for an activity that supports the organization's operation. Governance definitions can be maintained and linked through the GovernanceDefinitionManager client which supports the GovernanceDefinitionsInterface

Governance classification, tagging and linking¶

One of the ways to reduce the cost of governance is to define groups of similar assets/resources along with the governance definitions that apply to members of the group. This avoids having to make decisions on how to manage each asset/resource. The cataloguing process just needs to work out which group(s) to place the asset in. Labels such as classifications, and tags of different types are used to identify these group assignments. When a governance process is operating on the asset/resource, it looks up the labels and follows the governance definitions for the group.

The different types of labels used to group assets/resources are used for different purposes and may indicate how official they are:

• Governance Zones group assets according to their use. They are typically is used for controlling visibility to the resource's asset definition. Governance zones are managed through the GovernanceZoneManager client implementing the GovernanceZonesInterface.

• Governance Classifications define the groups used for specific types of governance.

  • Confidence Governance Classification defines the level of confidence that should be placed in the accuracy of related data items. This limits the scope that the data can be used in.
  • Confidentiality Governance Classification defines the level of confidentiality or secrecy needed with particular data.
  • Criticality Governance Classification defines how critical the related resources are to the continued operation of the organization.
  • Impact Governance Classification defines how much of an impact a particular situation is to the operation of the organization.
  • Retention Governance Classification defines how long a resource (typically data) must be retained by the organization.

• License Types define the contract aka (terms and conditions) that define how the asset/resource can be used. License types and the linking to assets is managed through the RightsManager client implementing the RightsManagementInterface.

• Certification Types define specific characteristics of an asset/resource that has been verified for a particular span of time. Certification types and the process of certifying assets is managed through the CertificationManager client implementing the CertificationManagerInterface

• SecurityTags identify labels and properties that are used in determining which data protection rules should be executed when particular data is requests. They can be attached to assets or schema elements depending on the scope of data that the security tags apply to. The synchronized access control feature describes how security tags are set up and used.

The labels may be assigned directly to the asset, or to elements, such as schemas and glossary terms that are linked to the asset. Security tags are managed through the Asset Owner OMAS.

Setting up the levels for your governance classifications¶

The values used in governance classifications show the specific group that the classified asset belongs to. Often an organization has their own levels defined ,and they can be set up in GovernanceClassificationLevel definitions.

Egeria has a set of default values that can be set up using the createStandardGovernanceClassificationLevels method. Alternatively you can set up your own values through the GovernanceClassificationManager client.

Governance Status Identifiers¶

Many entities, relationships and classifications have a statusIdentifier property. This indicates the confidence in the setting up of the element. Generally,

• Positive values relate to statuses which mean the element is ok to use.
• Zero means the element has just been created, but not vetted, so use with caution.
• Negative values mean that the element is not to be trusted because it is, for example, obsolete or incorrect.

The meanings of specific statusIdentifiers can be set up using the GovernanceStatusLevelManager that implements the GovernanceStatusLevelInterface.

Measures and metrics¶

As important aspect of the governance program is the ability to measure its effectiveness and identify the assets that are delivering the highest value, or operating with the greatest efficiency etc. Governance metrics can be managed through the GovernanceMetricsManager client that supports the GovernanceMetricsInterface

Related OMASs¶

• The Community Profile OMAS supports the definition of the profiles for people and teams that will support the governance program. These are linked to the governance roles defined by the governance program.

• The Project Management OMAS supports the rollout of the governance program by commissioning campaigns and projects to implement the governance controls and the collection of measurements to assess the success of the program.

• The Digital Architecture OMAS provides the setup of the digital landscape that supports the governance program. This includes the definitions of the information supply chains and solution components that support the organization's activities.

• The Digital Service OMAS documents the business capabilities along with their digital services that are supported by the governance program.

• The Governance Server OMAS supports the implementation of technical controls and the choreography of their execution.

• The Stewardship Action OMAS supports the stewards as they manage the exceptions detected to the governance program.

• The Data Privacy OMAS supports the operational aspects of managing privacy as part of the organization's activities.

• The Data Manager OMAS support the automated cataloging of assets and configuration of technology that is managing them.

• The Security Manager OMAS support the configuration of technology that is managing the security of assets.

• The Asset Manager OMAS supports the automated exchange of governance definitions between catalogs and asset managers to create a consistent rollout of governance requirements.

• The Asset Owner OMAS supports the linking of governance definitions and classifications to assets to define how they should be governed.

• The Asset Consumer OMAS supports the visibility of the governance definitions and classification by consumers of the assets.

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