Data Governance Executive Sponsors

How do UNLV draft roles correlate with selected literature on data stewardship?

Tony Fisher, Man in the middle: the evolving role of the data stewards, describes the data steward role from a historical perspective as a progression over time from what he called reactive data quality ( when you fix problems as they happen, then forget about it until the next problem occurs), to an ongoing data monitoring environment. Data quality is a shared responsibility in the new order. Stewards do not own data, rather they define and distribute accountability for it.

Robert Seiner, Data stewardship roles and responsibilities, describes data stewardship as the formalization of accountability – stewardship already exists in every organization, it is just that the data stewards don’t have that title, or the responsibility for data outlined in their job description.

Seiner defines two different levels of data stewardship – Program data stewards, and Participating data stewards. In our proposed model, Program data stewards are equivalent to the Data Governance Executive Sponsors, and the University Data Quality Administrator. Participating Data Stewards are the Subject Data Stewards (the person who will be THE data steward for an area), the Technical Data Stewards who will work together with the subject data steward, and some of what we called data administrators. Seiner also outlines a role for data usage, which is mostly outside the roles we have detailed. This diagram takes Seiner’s structure, and shows how our proposed model overlaps his definitions.

We are not as concerned about what the actual roles are under the data steward. We need to recognize that several roles exist today, and they assist the data steward to accomplish goals. Given known differences in each area, eventually, there could be a different chart for each area.

Barney Beal, A data steward’s job is never done, says that data stewards are people in departments who monitor the quality of data coming in and going out. This role is a “Participating Role” in the Seiner model, and would be most like what Seiner calls the Data Production Data Steward. In our model, it is the Data Administrator, reporting to the Subject Data Steward.

The Wikipedia article is focused on how data stewards fit in as the people responsible for the data dictionary. That article stresses the importance of assigning a person who knows the definition, values and code ranges for each data element. That person will produce documentation for their assigned elements, and will remove it when it becomes outdated. In our model, this is one of the duties assigned to the subject data steward, and shared with the technical data steward. Seiner would identify this as a Participating role.

Claudia Imhoff, Finally, a process for achieving data integrity, defines the data steward as a person responsible for managing data. This responsibility includes:

Integration
Consistent definitions
Structure
Calculations
Derivations.

She realizes the importance of a data warehouse, but reminds us that it is only as good as the data that goes into it. She feels that data stewards have to be respected because of their business knowledge. In our model, that aligns them with the subject data stewards. Although the individuals need to have some technical awareness, they also must have interpersonal skills that assist them in working together. The scope of the data stewardship role is one steward for each major data subject area. That person works with a group inside the subject area. This is consistent with Business Subject Manager, who is responsible for the roles that Robert Seiner includes under that position. In the UNLV proposal, it mirrors the Subject Data Administrator.

Imhoff makes a significant point that the data stewardship role requires a new incentive profile. There needs to be a way to reward for horizontal integration rather than vertical success. This idea would support what in our model are “communities of interest” that work together to achieve data integration.

References:
The Data Administration Newsletter July, 2005
DATA STEWARD ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
http://www.tdan.com/i033fe01.htm
Robert S. Seiner, KIK Consulting & Educational Services, LLC & TDAN.com

DMReview, Information Is Your Business --DM Direct Newsletter November 10, 2006 Issue
Man in the Middle: The Evolving Role of the Data Steward
http://www.dmreview.com/article_sub.cfm?articleId=1067361
By Tony Fisher

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Data Stewards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_steward

Computerworld - March 15, 2004, Mary Brandel
Data Stewards Seek Data Conformity
http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/businessintelligence/story/0,10801,91146,00.html
They have a variety of different titles, but these analysts work with the IT and business groups to improve data quality and standardization.

CRM News, 12 Jul 2004
A data steward's job is never done
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci992005,00.html
By Barney Beal, News Writer

The Data Administration Newsletter
DATA STEWARDSHIP: FINALLY A PROCESS FOR ACHIEVING DATA INTEGRITY
http://www.tdan.com/i002fe03.htm
Claudia Imhoff, Intelligent Solutions, Inc.