An information policy specifies the organization's rules for sharing, disseminating, acquiring, standardizing, classifying, and inventorying information, and includes procedures and accountabilities and roles.

Data administration is responsible for the specific policies and procedures through which data can be managed as an organizational resource. Responsibilities include developing information policy, planning for data, overseeing logical database design and data dictionary development, and monitoring how information systems specialists and end-user groups use data. Large organizations often require a formal data administration function.

Data governance deals with the policies and processes for managing the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data employed in an enterprise, with special emphasis on promoting privacy, security, data quality, and compliance with government regulations.

A large organization will also have a database design and management group that is responsible for defining and organizing the structure and content of the database, and maintaining the database. The functions it performs are called database administration.

In managing data, steps must be taken to ensure that the data in organizational databases are accurate and remain reliable. Data that are inaccurate, untimely, or inconsistent with other sources of information lead to incorrect decisions, product recalls, and even financial losses.

A good database design also includes efforts to maximize data quality and eliminate error. Some data quality problems result from redundant and inconsistent data, but most stem from errors in data input. Organizations need to identify and correct faulty data and establish better routines for input and editing.

A data quality audit can be performed by surveying entire data files, sample data, and surveying end-users impressions of data quality. Data cleansing (or data scrubbing) techniques can be used to correct data and enforce consistency among different sets of data.