A A Proposed Model for Assessing Data Governance Maturity Levels in Saudi's Public Universities

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the concept of data governance maturity and its models and presented a proposal that identifies the most important main and sub-domains that should be in the data governance maturity measurement model in Saudi public universities. A descriptive analytical approach was used to analyse the content of local frameworks and data governance maturity models. Also, a checklist was used to explore the information available on the websites of the data management offices of the universities. It also adopted a semi-structured interview tool with a community of (18) experts working in data management offices in Saudi public universities (King Saud University, Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University, Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University). The findings indicated that the three public universities had made relative progress in developing frameworks and public policies for data governance. Additionally, the analysis of local frameworks and proposed models in literature studies indicated that the proposed model should encompass three key dimensions (strategic, organizational, and operational). However, the interview results emphasized the need to integrate the technical dimension to enhance the model's comprehensiveness and align it with the requirements of public universities that prioritize technological infrastructure. The study concluded that the proposed data governance maturity model in Saudi public universities should include 4 pivotal dimensions (strategic, organizational, operational, and technical), which include several main and sub-areas to ensure the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the assessment.