Project governance and ethical data use

Learning objectives

• Establish review controls that keep projects authorized and transparent.
• Protect data integrity through traceability.
• Recognize common ethical risks in improvement work.

Governance in one paragraph

Teams need approved scope, decision rights, change control, traceable data, honest reporting and confidentiality. Data must not be altered to manufacture a result or used to blame individuals without context.

Garment-factory example

Operator-level defect data should support coaching and process analysis, not public shaming, and it must not be selectively filtered by removing difficult styles that make the result look worse.

Method

1. Define data access and retention.
2. Record data source and any transformations.
3. Preserve raw data; disclose exclusions.
4. Review both decisions and risks at each tollgate.

Common mistakes

• Changing definitions mid-project.
• Hiding failed pilots or negative findings.