Create and manage governance domains

Ownership of data is an important aspect of data governance. However, today data is maintained and supported by IT infrastructure that doesn't always have the full context for how data can and should be used in an organization. The use of governance domains brings users and data together with a data-use driven structure.

This article covers how to create and manage governance domains in Microsoft Purview. For more information about governance domains in general, see our governance domains concept page.

Prerequisites

• To create a governance domain the user must have the governance domain creator role.
• To assign data stewards or data product owners, a user must have governance domain owner permissions.
• To curate (add terms or OKRs to a governance domain) user must have Data Steward permissions.
• To add Data Products to a governance domain a user must have Data Product Owner permissions.

Access governance domains

To see governance domains, a user needs Unified Catalog reader role.

1. In the Microsoft Purview portal, open Unified Catalog.
2. Under Catalog management, select Governance domains. Displayed are a list of all the governance domains in your organization. You can filter the governance domains by keyword.
3. Select a governance domain to see its details, roles, aggregate data quality score, health actions, associated data products, glossary terms, OKRs, and critical data.

Roles

To edit the users, groups, or service principals assigned to a role:

1. Navigate to the governance domain you want to edit the roles in.

2. On the Roles tab, select the + button next to the role name where you want to add the user.

3. Search for users, groups, or service principals to add to the role and select them.

4. To remove users from the list, select the X next to their name.

5. When you're done, select Save.

Get more information about the roles assigned at the governance domain level.

View your business concepts

Your governance domain has many business concepts associated with it: data products, glossary terms, OKRs, and critical data.

You can find and view each of these concepts in your governance domain in the Business concepts area on the governance domain's Details tab. Select the card for each concept to view its details.

To add any of these concepts to your governance domain, see:

• Add data products.
• Add glossary terms.
• Add OKRs.
• Add critical data.

Create governance domains

1. In Unified Catalog, select Catalog management, then select Governance domains.
2. Select New Governance domain.
3. Give your governance domain a unique name and a description.
4. Select the governance domain Type: Functional unit, line of business, data domain, regulatory, or project. Type is an extra descriptor to indicate your governance domain's purpose. There aren't any behavioral differences between types.
5. Select an existing domain as a parent domain (optional). Parent/child relationships can be visualized in a tree-like hierarchy.

   Note

   Governance domain hierarchies in Unified Catalog can support as many as 200 domains, including a maximum of five levels of depth.

6. Select Create.

You'll see your governance domain in the list of domains. Other users won't be able to see this governance domain until its status is set to Published. You must also first publish your domain before you can publish business concepts within like glossary terms or data products.

Manage governance domains

1. On the governance domain's details page, select Edit.
2. You can edit the domain's name, description, owner, and status.
3. When you're done, select Save.

To add data products to a governance domain, see Create and manage data products.

Data estate mappings

You can map your governance domains to collections in your Data Map to direct your stewards and data product owners to build business concepts from data assets belonging to specific collections. This mapping is meant to be recommended guidance, as these Data Governance roles require Data Map permissions to access the data assets.

To map your governance domain to a specific Data Map collection:

1. In Unified Catalog, select Catalog management, then select Governance domains.

2. Select the governance domain you want to map to a Data Dap collection.

3. Select the Data estate mappings tab.

4. Select the drop-down and select the collection you want to associate your governance domain with.

   Note

   You will only be able to see the collections that you have access to in Data Map.

5. Select Save.

Observability (preview)

The Observability (preview) tab provides a more detailed view into data health and lineage. This view requires a brief setup process. Get details about the observability view for governance domains.

Delete governance domains

To delete a governance domain, you will need to unpublish it and delete all business concepts within it, including any subdomains. You can then select the Delete button and proceed with deleting the governance domain.

Manage domain policies

To manage domain policies, you need data owner or data steward permissions.

1. On your governance domain's page, select Configure access.
2. From the policy configuration window, you're able to create and manage your access policies. For more information, see the documentation about managing access policies.

Access classic experiences in the governance domain

You can access classic glossaries, business assets, or managed attributes be going to Catalog management, then selecting Classic types.

Select a tab to access your classic experinces: Glossaries or Business assets or Asset types or Managed attributes.

Next steps

• Create and manage data products