As data volumes and sources continue to expand and proliferate, a robust information governance model and process is a vital underpinning of an efficient e-discovery process. Information governance, generally, provides a framework of policies and procedures by which organizations manage their information and data. Since the core of e-discovery includes the identification, preservation, and collection of an organization's data, it follows that the two areas could not be more intertwined and dependent on one another.

As the e-discovery lifecycle has matured, information governance has taken on a more prominent and important role as the foundational stage of the process. For example, when the electronic discovery reference model (EDRM) was first conceived in 2005 by George Socha and Tom Gelbman, the preliminary first draft of the model began at the "identification" stage. The authors, however, quickly (and astutely) added a "records management" stage in the later 2005 through the first 2007 versions. In the 2007 and 2009 versions, the model was adjusted to include an "information management" stage, and by the 2014 version, the model evolved to include "information governance" as the first stage. Fast forward to today, and there is now a fourth version, the standalone information governance reference model (IGRM).  See EDRM, "Information Governance Reference Model." https://edrm.net/resources/frameworks-and-standards/information-governance-reference-model/