Lesson 8: Data Governance and Information Lifecycle

Data goes through a life cycle: from creation/acquisition to use, storage, archiving, and eventually disposal. For example, a patient's medical record is created at first visit (creation), then updated with each visit (use), stored in a hospital database (storage), moved to long-term archives after a certain time (archiving), and finally deleted when legally allowed (disposal). Good information management policies define how long data must be kept (records retention) and how to dispose of it securely. In the Philippines, laws like RA 9470 (National Archives) require some documents to be kept for many years.

The simplified life cycle flow is: Data Creation → Storage & Maintenance → Use & Sharing → Archiving → Disposition. After disposition (secure deletion or shredding), the cycle ends.

Data governance is the framework of rules and responsibilities ensuring data is accurate, consistent, and used properly. Key aspects include: data ownership (who is responsible for data), data quality (correctness, completeness), and security policies. For instance, a government agency might assign a Data Steward to ensure all addresses are correctly formatted. Master Data Management (MDM) is a practice to maintain a single source of truth for core entities (customers, products). Good governance means fewer errors: if a province records student info wrong, it affects planning and resource allocation.