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Create policies

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Who can do this?

You must be an admin user in Atlan to enable, create, manage, and approve data governance policies.

You can create a policy to document guidelines for the following:

  • How's data processed and managed within your organization?
  • Who is responsible for the data under various circumstances?
  • What can you do to reduce potential business problems from the improper use of data?

Before you can create a data governance policy, you must have an Atlan admin enable the policy center module in your Atlan workspace. To create a policy, complete the following steps.

Create a policy​

To create a new policy:

  1. From the left menu of any screen in Atlan, click Governance.
  2. Under the Governance heading of the Governance center, click Policy center.
  3. From the Policy Center, click the + New policy button to create a new policy.
  4. In the Create a new policy dialog, enter the following details:
    1. For Policy name, enter a meaningful name for your policy.
    2. For Policy type, choose a policy type.
    3. For Owners, assign individual users or groups as policy owners.
    4. Click Create to get started.

Define the policy​

Add a purpose​

Once you have created a policy, you can define its purpose. This is the mission statement of your policy, where you can outline what you want the policy to accomplish.

To define the purpose of your policy:

  1. In the Overview tab of the policy page, under Purpose, you can either:
    • Click Edit to manually describe the purpose of your policy and then click Save.
    • Click ask Atlan AI to add an Atlan AI-generated description. In the Generate purpose using Atlan AI form, enter the following details:
      1. For Enter industry, enter the name of your industry - for example, Finance.
      2. To define the area of impact of your policy, click the dropdown to select Global, Regional, or Local policy.
      3. For compliance type, select Standard, Regulation, or Other.
      4. For Enter compliance, enter the compliance regulation.
      5. For Describe the policy, enter a brief description of your policy.
      6. Click Generate Purpose to generate an Atlan AI-generated purpose.
  2. (Optional) Click + Add resource to add resources to your policy description.

Describe the policy​

You can set out the best practices, goals, and guidelines for your policy document.

To describe your policy:

  1. Switch to the Purpose tab of your policy page.
  2. In the Policy section, click Edit to write your policy. You can either manually draft the policy description or use Atlan AI to do the same and then edit as needed.
  3. Click Save to save your changes.

(Optional) Add policy exceptions​

A policy exception is a method for maintaining a policy but granting exceptions to authorized individuals or entities. Doing so will allow them to circumvent one or more restrictions.

To add a policy exception:

  1. In the Purpose tab of the policy page, under Policy Exceptions, click Add policy exception.
  2. In the New policy exception form, enter the following details:
    1. For Exception name, enter a meaningful name.
    2. For Purpose, briefly describe the purpose of this exception.
    3. For Users, select the individual users or groups to whom this exception should apply.
    4. Click Add exception to save your changes.
  3. (Optional) Click + Add new to add more policy exceptions.

Define scope and rules​

Did you know?

Your selected assets will not be linked to the draft policy until after it has been approved. It may also take a few hours after the policy has been approved for the assets to be linked while the linkage workflow runs in the background.

Select asset scope​

You can determine the assets within the scope of your policy. Policy rules will only apply to the filtered subset of assets you select.

To select assets:

  1. Switch to the Scope & Rules tab of your policy page.
  2. For Asset scope, use the asset filters to select the relevant assets. The operators and values will vary depending on the selected attributes.
  3. (Optional) To add more filters, click Add filter.
  4. (Optional) To preview the assets included in the scope of your policy, click View all.
  5. Click Save scope to save asset selection.
  6. (Optional) To the right of any filter, click the three horizontal dots and then:
    • To remove a filter, click Delete.
    • To turn off a filter, click Disable. Click Enable to turn on any disabled filters.

Create compliance rules​

To implement and enforce your policy, you can create a set of rules to specify permitted or restricted actions, enable compliance with data standards, and ensure accountability.

If the assets scoped to the policy do not comply with all the rules, Atlan will trigger an incident to alert you. This incident can help you understand the specific rules that have been violated by the assets, making them noncompliant with the policy.

Atlan currently supports creating 10 rules per policy.

To define compliance rules:

  1. In the Scope & Rules tab of your policy page, Assets must comply with the scope defined above is the default rule for all policies. You must first determine your asset scope before you can create compliance rules.
  2. For Compliance rules, use the attribute filters to create a rule with which scoped assets must comply. The operators and values will vary depending on the selected attributes. Atlan currently supports creating policy rules based on the following metadata attributes:
  3. (Optional) To add more rules, click Add another rule.
  4. Click Save rules to save the rules you created for the policy. Atlan will scan scoped assets to ensure that these match all the rules. An incident will be triggered for any asset that does not comply with all the policy rules.
  5. (Optional) To the right of any rule, click the three horizontal dots and then:
    • To remove a rule, click Delete.
    • To turn off a rule, click Disable. Click Enable to turn on any disabled rules.

Define policy validity​

To define the validity period of your policy:

  1. In the Policy Details sidebar of the Overview tab, for Valid till, click the pencil icon to set a validity period.
  2. From the calendar, set a date for when the policy will expire.
  3. For Review period, click the pencil icon to set a review period. For ...days before expiry, enter a numeric value for when the policy should be reviewed before its expiration date.

By default, Atlan will display a warning message on the policy 30 days prior to its expiration date. You can adjust the review period to set a different timeline. During the review period, you can either revise the expiring policy or extend its validity period.

Select approval workflow​

To select an approval workflow:

  1. Switch to the Relationships tab of your policy page.
  2. From the left menu, select Approval Workflows.
  3. In the Approval Workflows section, click Add approval workflow.
  4. In the Select Approval Workflow dialog, click the relevant approval workflow for your policy.
  5. (Optional) Hover over Approvers to view a list of approvers.
  6. Click Save to save your selections.

You can add business context to your policies in Atlan.

  • In the Overview tab of the policy page, under Linked Terms, click the + button to add related terms.

You may want to group data governance policies by policy type, business function, and more. You can optionally create relationships between your policies in Atlan to build a more comprehensive framework of data governance.

To add related policies:

  1. Switch to the Relationships tab of your policy page.
  2. From the left menu, select Related Policies.
  3. In the Related Policies section, click Add related policies.
  4. In the left menu of the Add policies related to... dialog, click the relevant policies to connect to your policy.
  5. Click Add policies to save your selections.

Submit for approval​

Once you have reviewed your policy, in the top right of your screen, click Submit for approval to submit your policy for approval.

If the policy has been approved and the workflow linking the policy to your selected assets has run successfully, the policy you created will become active and govern linked assets.

For governed assets, linked policies will appear on the asset sidebar. You can hover over a linked policy in the asset sidebar to view details in a popover, including policy type, purpose, and certification status, and even navigate to the policy in the policy center.

Did you know?

If you have any questions about setting up policies, head over to Troubleshooting policies.