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Why is metadata the foundation of data governance?

Because without it data has no meaning. Metadata is context: information about data that determines how it should be understood, classified and used. Shannon Els puts it plainly with a comparison, that 25 degrees tells you nothing until you know whether it is Celsius or Fahrenheit.

What metadata really is

More than data about data. It is context. Without it, data is meaningless: you cannot make a decision about a figure without knowing what it counts, over which period and under which definition. The comparison used is a temperature of 25 degrees, which tells you nothing about what to wear until you know the scale.

Why governance depends on it

Governance records who owns which data, who defines it and who may use it. All three are statements about a data item, and a data item you cannot describe is one you cannot govern. That is why a catalogue is usually the first concrete step: it turns an abstract agreement into something you can look up.

What to record first

• What the item means, in a sentence someone outside the team can read
• Where it comes from and through how many hands
• Who owns it, by name
• What happens if it is wrong, and who notices

The practical test

If two people can read the definition and reach the same answer about an edge case, the metadata is doing its job. If not, the argument you thought you had settled is still there.

Based on an episode of the Databewuster podcast, recorded in Dutch. The episode, the summary and the full transcript are on the podcast page. This English article describes what was discussed; it does not quote the guest directly, because the conversation was in Dutch.