More than Just a Policy - Day to Day Effects of Data Governance on the Data Scientist

Within a short space of time, the debate about Data Governance has fallen behind the realities of data-driven industries and economies. The flow and trade of data is driven by the needs of different stakeholders and evolution of global contexts of many technologies that are seen as local. To the Data Scientist, it may seem like an exciting time that has infinite possibility and opportunity to invent the near future. The gap between Data Governance on the African continent and data practice poses a challenge that must be dealt with sooner than later. This paper looks at the intersection of Data Science practice and Data Governance, I analyze some of the recent literature to identify areas of concern and focus. Ultimately, I look at how non-technical considerations are core in bridging data governance and data science practice, borrowing from other disciplines that had a head start with these challenges. Finally, we suggest steps that can be taken by practitioners to reduce this gap between governance and practice.