Executive Sponsors
Data Governance Executive Sponsors Meeting January 9, 2007
Attending: Dawn Neuman, Lori Temple, Cem Sunata, John Tully, Brent Morgan, Larry Hamilton, Kari Coburn, Lynne Personius, Monty Young
The goal of this meeting was to establish a clear understanding of the data steward's role at UNLV, and to make specific plans to appoint individuals to that role, along with a timeline to accomplish it.
Action items resulting from this meeting:
Executive sponsors agreed to review their own area, and to determine who will be appointed as data stewards for their data. By mid-February each will provide that information to Lynne. Executive Sponsors will forward their data steward list to Lynne for submission to the rest of the group. We will convene again after the stewards have been named to discuss the next step.
Preparation for this meeting included reading relevant literature, and then taking a look at how the UNLV proposal aligns with other descriptions and definitions of data stewards from these readings.
The reason for a literature overview was to make apparent that what we are doing here is reasonably documented and represented in other organizations. We find that other institutions use different terminology and language, however there is a strong similarity in the roles being described.
Some important themes in the articles were emphasized.
- Data Stewardship is not a new task. Today there are already people doing this work. What we have to do is to further define and formalize that role. Then we can provide management for work that is being done today in a more ad hoc manner.
- Looking back at the literature, Steiner divided the functions into program roles and participating roles. Participating roles are filled by the data stewards and those that support them in that capacity. Executive sponsors and the University Data Administrator fill the program roles which are new. Executive Sponsors will provide direction and assistance to formalize the work that is already being done and make it more effective.
- Data stewardship has a horizontal component that it is new. Data elements cross departmental and subject lines, and the stewards will need to work together to align the needs of their own unit with others regarding specific data elements.
Next, we reviewed the duties of the data stewards. For an overview, link to drawing used as focal point for this discussion, that lists responsibilities in the context of UNLV data governance structure.
Discussion followed.
The group discussed work currently under way, using the Building Code review as an example. We agreed that there is a data steward for building data, and that the committee is working toward addressing cross departmental needs for that data.
Who is responsible for copies of data made from the core systems? We agreed that the data steward who authorizes the copy is responsible for it, and needs to understand how it being used and secured. Any subsequent granting of access to that data should be handled by the data steward and not by the organization using the copy.
Levels of responsibility and tasks. We agreed that within each subject area, the data steward may distribute tasks according to how that works in that organization. That will be at the discretion of each data steward. Technical data stewards work together with data stewards to implement the requirements that they have. Other individuals, usually reporting to a data steward, will carry out specific tasks, produce reports, and monitor data quality.
Data stewards and the ERP - The Board of Regents has decided to implement the student system first. Therefore, many data decisions will be made that have implications in HR or Finance. The data governance council will provide a forum to discuss these issues from a data perspective.
How to know how many data stewards to appoint? Lori agreed to circulate appendix I of the RFP, which lists the systems in we have. It will be helpful to provide direction. Download a copy if you need it.