Governance Operating Model — Roles, Decision Rights and Delegation

A governance operating model explains who is accountable, who performs the work and who has authority to make decisions.

Accountability and execution are different

A Data Product Owner can remain accountable for a data product while delegating much of the day-to-day work to Data Stewards. The person carrying out a delegated task still needs the Microsoft Purview permissions required for that task.

Use role scope deliberately

Microsoft Purview separates tenant, catalog, Governance Domain and Data Map permissions. A governance operating model should therefore map responsibilities to the narrowest practical scope rather than relying on broad administrator roles.

Questions to define

• Who owns each Governance Domain?
• Who is accountable for each data product?
• Who performs stewardship activities?
• Who approves or provisions access?
• Who monitors governance and data health?
• Who administers sources, scans and technical metadata?

Documenting these responsibilities makes the Purview role model part of a repeatable operating model rather than a collection of ad-hoc permissions.