The purpose of this paper is to study and explore the essential aspects of data governance in eMaintenance that need to be considered such as data sharing and data ownership in a cross-organisational railway maintenance context. Furthermore, the paper develops and provides an approach to strategies and guidelines, which can be used to govern digital data sharing.

To fulfil this purpose, case studies of several projects where sharing of data between stakeholders in order to develop maintenance decision support, was selected as a research strategy and supported by a literature study. Empirical data were collected through interviews, workshops, document studies, and observations. An approach was developed and validated using a case study.

The proposed approach supports the understanding and establishing strategies and guidelines for data governance in a cross-organisational railway context. This can be considered as one of the enablers for information logistics for maintenance purposes where the approach can be used as a support tool in order to facilitate the development of maintenance decision support within the railway industry.