Appendix: Governance & Workflow Diagrams
This appendix contains comprehensive visual diagrams for data governance, ownership, approval workflows, and operational processes. For detailed governance rules and policies, see the main Data Lake Architecture document.
1. Ownership & Responsibility Matrix
Layer Ownership Diagram
Responsibility Matrix
| Layer | Owner | Steward | Write Access | Read Access | Change Approval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Data Platform Team | Ingestion Lead | Platform Team only | Platform, Compliance (audit) | Platform Team |
| Silver | Domain Teams | Domain Analyst | Domain Teams, Platform | Domain Teams, Analysts | Domain + Platform review |
| Gold | Business (Finance) | Finance Controller | Platform (on approval) | Business, Analysts, BI | Finance Controller |
| Quarantine | Data Quality Team | Quality Lead | ETL Pipeline, Platform | Quality Team, Compliance | Quality Team |
2. Schema Change Governance Workflow
Schema Evolution Process
Schema Versioning Timeline
3. Data Quality & Quarantine Governance
Quarantine Review Workflow
Data Quality Escalation Matrix
4. Backfill & Reprocessing Governance
Backfill Approval Workflow
Backfill Decision Tree
5. Access Control & Permissions
IAM Permission Matrix
Permission Summary Table
| Role | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Quarantine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform Team | Read/Write | Read/Write | Write (on approval) | Read/Write |
| Domain Teams | - | Read/Write (domain scope) | Read | - |
| Business Users | - | - | Read | - |
| Data Analysts | - | Read | Read | - |
| Compliance | Read (audit) | - | - | Read (audit) |
6. Human Approval Workflows
Condemned Data Management
Promotion Workflow (Gold Layer)
7. Governance Decision Framework
Change Request Classification
Governance Escalation Path
8. Operational Governance
Daily Operations Workflow
Monitoring & Alerting Governance
9. Compliance & Audit Governance
Audit Trail Workflow
Data Retention Policy
10. Governance Summary
Key Principles
- Layer-Based Ownership: Each layer has clear ownership and stewardship
- Approval Workflows: All changes require appropriate approvals based on layer and impact
- Human-in-the-Loop: Critical decisions (condemned data, Gold promotion) require human approval
- Audit Trail: All operations are logged and retained for compliance
- Versioning: Schema changes use version tags for backward compatibility
- Safe Publishing: Write-then-publish pattern prevents partial data exposure
Governance Checklist
- Schema changes follow approval workflow
- Backfills have appropriate approvals
- Quarantine data is reviewed regularly
- Condemned data requires human approval
- Gold layer promotion follows validation process
- Access permissions are reviewed quarterly
- Audit logs are retained for 7 years
- Compliance reports are generated monthly
Related Documentation
- Data Lake Architecture - Main governance documentation
- Human Validation Policy - Approval workflows
- CI/CD Workflow - Infrastructure governance
Last Updated: January 2026
Owner: Data Platform Team