Own it

A practical track to define scope, set SLOs, wire alerts, enforce RBAC and retention, and package real evidence of senior-level impact

This mini-course is part of the Level-up data engineering playlist. Click here to explore the full series.

It’s 8:12 on a Monday. Your Slack lights up. Finance asks which revenue number is real. Your dashboard says one thing. Payouts say another. The exec thread grows teeth.

You check the pipeline. Freshness is off by 2 days. You feel the heat. You know the tables. You don’t own the risk.

When this happened last month you patched it. But the noise stayed. So this time you do it different.

You pick a thin slice of revenue. You make decisions explicit. You set three Service-Level Objectives that touch money. You wire paging to a real person. You lock roles. You keep data only as long as needed.

And you put it all in Notion and Git so anyone can click and see.

Four weeks from now you can demo the portfolio. You don’t promise trust. You show it.

How to work with this mini-course

Just reading the article alone would take you over 20 minutes. So:

• Bookmark this guide and set a reminder to revisit it weekly.

• Skim the entire article once to understand the big picture.

• Each week, complete the exercises before applying them to your own projects.

Take your time. Don’t rush to implement everything at once. Master each step before moving to the next.

Also, you will need about an hour to read the whole thing and write the code at once. It’s much easier to spend 15 minutes per week!

Now, let’s dive deep into data governance.

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What data governance is

You make data safe, reliable, and usable on purpose. You write clear rules, wire checks, and keep receipts.

Small files. Real owners. Clear targets. Evidence you can demo.

No more “Garbage in, garbage out” excuses.

Rule 1: Do not run this for compliance

Checkbox work dies fast. Shelf docs age in weeks. People ignore them. Risk stays.

When you keep it small and enforceable, behavior changes. The rule lives in code. The calendar forces a check. The log shows who touched what and when. You can prove control in under a minute and move on.

Rule 2: Do not say “governance” to the business

The word triggers delay in their head. Finance wants one number today. Sales wants access now.

Frame the same work in benefits. One revenue number by morning. Access approved in under a day. Sensitive fields masked by default. Audit pulled in minutes.

Same engine. Cleaner story. Fewer blockers.

What it includes

• Scope: Pick the 3 to 5 revenue assets that move money. Ignore the rest for now.

• Definitions: Land 10 or fewer terms with Finance. Bookings. Payouts. Reporting day. Short and testable.

• Targets: Set up-to-the-day freshness. Add completeness. Add accuracy. Store results where people can see them.

• Access: Map roles to tables and columns. Mask PII for non-cleared roles. Log approvals.

• Lifecycle: Set retention per asset. Automate deletion where possible. Record exceptions.

• Cadence: Run a monthly 30-minute data health review. Hits. Misses. Actions. Owners.

Each part feeds the others. Scope says what you protect. Definitions say what you mean. Targets show if money is safe. Access limits blast radius. Lifecycle reduces risk and cost. Cadence keeps it alive.

How this plays out

You answer the same revenue question three times a week.

When the exec thread lights up and trust dips. But you link the one-pager, show yesterday’s load met targets, and point to the accuracy variance.

So the thread goes quiet and Finance nods. And you log one action and move on.

Ending with less noise and a clear next step.

What you can demo any day

• A Notion one-pager with scope, success, and owners.

• A small glossary signed off by Finance.

• SLO results showing yesterday’s data met thresholds.

• A role matrix and a masking policy for email and phone.

• A retention script that matches the matrix.

• A calendar invite for the monthly health review with last month’s actions closed.

Now, let’s do the work.

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Week 1: own a thin slice and make decisions explicit

The goal this week

Pick a small piece of revenue data and make the rules visible. You decide the scope, words, owners, and success. Finance can click and see it.

What you will ship

• Revenue Governance One-Pager

• RACI for 3–5 assets

• Glossary with ≤10 terms Finance approves

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⚠️ Don’t miss these two events

Next week, I’ll run a live workshop that steps on this month’s mini-course. I will show you how to build a RACI matrix and maximise your project’s chance for success.

And, on the 26th of November, you and I will have our monthly group coaching call, where you will take your next step to being a more profitable data engineer.

Disclaimer: You can always watch the recordings, but only folks who participate live have the opportunity to engage and be a part of something no other community offers.

Click the links below to add the events to your calendar and join the live Zoom calls.