Data Governance » Data Stewards

Data Stewards & Data Governance

Brian — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:58:42 +0000

A Data Governance team banks on its credibility to effectively handle data and ensure that the quality of data is flawless. These responsibilities aren’t easy to perform, hence the need to make use of Data Stewards. Data come from many sources – in the form of internal and external customers as well as 3^rd party vendors and providers. The amount of data gathered from all of these sources can very quickly become overwhelming. This is where the role of the Data Stewards come into play. Data Stewards are usually people that assume collateral duties of managing data in addition to their other roles (which could be doing any other types of tasks anywhere in the enterprise).

In some cases, the Data Stewardship group within an organization is composed of the Data Stakeholders themselves. These Data Stewards ensure that data-related decisions are carried out in a way that doesn’t conflict with another person or entity within the organization. Aside from technical skills, a Data Steward should also have a clear, crisp way of communicating issues and ideas and will be responsible for ensuring that any ambiguities in the data are removed.

Responsibilities of a Data Steward include:

Data Stewards must see to it that the data being carried out doesn’t overlap any existing, contradicting data within the organization
Data Stewards are always on the look out for possible errors in the structure.
Data Stewards must help ensure that the data is error-free.
Data warehousing is one of the key roles of a Data Steward.
Data Stewards ensure consistency of data. They maybe one level below the Data Governance board, but these stewards also play a big role in data decision-making.

In a large enterprise, it is not sufficient that a single Data Steward is employed. It usually takes a team of experts in their respective fields to come up with a successful Data Stewardship council.

Data Stakeholders

Brian — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:32:37 +0000

Who are considered Data Stakeholders? Data Stakeholders can be individuals, groups, or departments within an organization that have direct or indirect use of the data structures. Data Stakeholders are often comprised of people from departments such as IT, Quality Assurance, Marketing, Operations, etc. These are generally the same set of people who gather the data, compile the data, track updates about the data and ensure that the data are compliant to the focus of the business.

An effective Data Governance team must know which Data Stakeholders to get in contact with depending on what type of data they need or are working on. For example, if a company needs to know the current market trends and behavior, the Data Governance team should be able to identify at first brush that they need to get a hold of a representative from the Marketing department. If data about providing quality customer service is needed, then they need to get in contact with someone from the Quality Assurance department and so on and so forth.

Since this is the case, it is the responsibility of the Data Governance board to identify specific Points-of-Contact (POCs) from each of these departments for when there is a need to change and update people across the board. It is tedious to speak to everyone in the department to find the right POC, so it is extremely beneficial that an identified representative from each department be present when there is a Data Governance meeting.

Data Stakeholders can take either an active or a passive stand when it comes to these matters but it is best to get them involved in the decision-making process in some capacity. We have to make these people understand how the business works, how the data within the business works and how it affects the department and the company as a whole if the data calls don’t go to the correct channels.

Data Governance Office

Brian — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:25:44 +0000

The Data Governance Office is a collective representation of all of the tasks/groups within the Data Governance structure – both Stewards and Stakeholders included. The Data Governance Office aims to bring the departments together with the goal of identifying, either proactively or reactively, certain data issues and resolve them with the help of the Data Stakeholders.

Some of the responsibilities of the DGO (Data Government Office) include:

Standardize processes and methods to align with the corporate culture of the organization
Identify a point-of-contact from each department that is affected, either directly or indirectly, by the data that is being standardized
Build the Data Stewardship council
Communicate effectively with the different lines of business within an organizational structure
Monitors trends and drivers and report them to the departments concerned
Counter-check existing policies and procedures being carried out to the stakeholders
Collect metrics and best practices and reports them to the departments concerned
Provide communication updates to all departments concerned, including the Stakeholder council
Come up with activities that will help ensure cohesiveness within departments
Show the relevance of Data Governance in relation to the organization as a whole
Keep a list/spreadsheet/database of all Data Governance issues

On the other hand, there are small scale companies that do not employ the use of a Formal DGO framework. What they have is one that is relatively similar in concept, but is much smaller in terms of staffing. These are your jack-of-all-trade Data Analysts and Data Architects. However, for as long as tasks and responsibilities are aligned, it is not so much of a big deal if a formal DGO structure is not utilized.

Data Governance Liabilities & Accountabilities

Brian — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:55:13 +0000

Rules and standards are the basis for any data-related decisions. Data governance acknowledges accountabilities as those that can directly affect the daily processes as well as those of the software development life cycle (SDLC) of the organization. Likewise, the degree of accountabilities, especially in terms of compliance, is in accordance to the set rules, regulations and standards as well as those data-related decisions.

It is never easy to identify non-compliance as well as distributing tasks for compliance activities to different groups or participants in the program. As stressed in the previous articles, compliance is very important for any program, but is particularly important to Data Governance as it is a core area DG focuses on. Compliance is very important in Data Governance because it needs collaboration of efforts from different participants on the program to monitor and maintain such compliance. Hence, it can only be said as complete only when you act to comply with the rules, controlling compliance, record such compliance and provide a strong proof of compliance.

Sadly, most individual managers have a hard time fulfilling all these requirements of compliance and they cannot have their own process or ways when it comes to interpreting these requirements. To solve this problem, companies create a core group whose sole duty and responsibility is to create these requirements and then inform and relay these requirements to the different stakeholders. With this, requirements for compliance should be well defined and clear. Companies can also seek the help and assistance from Data Governance in shaping these requirements for data-related accountabilities and liabilities. Lastly, companies should have and follow strict protocols when it comes to these data-related accountabilities.

“IT People are like Forklift Drivers”

Brian — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:25:17 +0000

One of the key components of data governance is assisting in determining who the data stewards (some say data owners) are for the critical and/or enterprise data. I tend to like the term steward because ‘owner’ implies full-control over the data, but nonetheless, the terms are generally used synonymously.

It is extremely important that the data governance office provides guidance to the business on who the ‘go to person’ is for the different data domains. IT doesn’t own the data, the business does (despite what anyone may tell you!). A great analogy on how “IT People are like Forklift Drivers” is provided here by Michael R. Farnum. He wrote it so clearly that I won’t even bother to elaborate, but rather urge you to check out his blog post.

Does anyone have experience developing a data governance strategy?

Brian — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:45:54 +0000

In my post ‘8 Reasons why Data Governance fails‘, Carol S asked, “Does anyone have experience in developing a data governance strategy?”. I haven’t talked with her about this yet, but I’d like to recommend the following high-level path to launching Data Governance in an organization. This is very high level (read: quick & dirty), so you’ll need to take time and break these steps down into discrete tasks.

1. Start a Data Initiative to fix a few specific problems
Before the words ‘data governance’ are ever uttered, start an initiative to fix a few problems that span the enterprise. Make sure these are problems that bother people so that you’ll get buy-in. As part of this initiative, build a business team that will work on the problems (they’ll later become your Data Stewardship Council).

2. Define the scope of a Data Governance program
You should determine what needs to be governed. Is it Enterprise Data, Master data, or the Data Warehouse?

3. Introduce Data Governance
Make sure that #1 above is a wild success. Then tell everyone, “Lets keep this momentum going. Lets tackle some of the other problems that are bothering everyone”.

4. Form your Data Governance Stewardship Council
It’ll likely be the same people who helped you in your first data initiative. Make sure that every business area affected by your scope is involved.

5. Identify a Chief Data Steward
Read my post “Building your Stewardship Council” and “More on Identifying the Lead Steward” for more information on this.

6. Develop a strategy to work your scope
Remember, this is a program, not a project. You need a plan that is ongoing and factors in Data Quality.

7. Kick-off with the Business and IT
Here are some tips for kicking off your meeting.

8. Work the strategy.
Read this blog for ongoing tips

Divide and Conquer

Brian — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:55:32 +0000

There really is something to be said about dividing up your council to work on separate issues and then reconvening to discuss and approve the results. I’ve used this technique recently for some of the issues on our tracking sheet that ‘just won’t go away’. You probably have these too… whether they be important but nagging issues with the legacy systems or a business unit who just won’t respond so you can close something out. In any case, over time, these outstanding issues will multiply and the best method I’ve found it so assign them out to your stewards to have them worked on. I’ve also found that there are a few keys to success when doing this.

The first key to success is to provide support. As someone who represents that Data Governance Office, you should always be ready to provide support to the data stewards. Whether this means helping them identify a key resource or matching them up with an IT SME; the more that you support the stewards, the more willing they will be to take on the data issues as their own cause.

The second key to success is to set expectations from the beginning. Do you expect that they close the issue out by a certain date? Or, do you just want them to research it and have results and recommendations within the month? Whatever it is, make sure they know up front. One thing is for certain, if you don’t let them know of your expectations in the beginning, 80% of them will not meet them. You want to be on the other side of the 80/20 rule.

My final key to success is to identify a leader for the issue and to then have that leader identify their team. The leader is generally the closest person to the issue. Having them identify their team puts some responsibility and ownership squarely in their lap.

Be Visible, Champion the Data Governance Cause

Brian — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:23:08 +0000

It is important that your Data Governance program stay visible throughout the organization. This means getting out there and doing presentations, getting your talking points in whenever the opportunity presents itself, volunteering to speak at all-hands meetings and business team meetings, etc. A few posts back I talked about the much needed ‘Elevator Speech‘ and I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have those ready at a moments notice. Additionally though, you’ll need talking points and presentations that last 15-30 minutes and longer for meetings with other IT and Business units, high level executive presentation, mid-level business teams, and any other audience where Data Governance can bring value.

Its important to know your audience when speaking or presenting and you need to specifically tailor your message to what they want to hear. Executives want to know the value you bring to the organization – Remember “Make Money, Reduce Cost, or Mitigate Risk. Period” ?? Make sure your presentation for your executives centers around at least one of those important issues.

For your business units, they are going to want to know what you can do for them. Are you going to help them do their jobs better? Make things more efficient? Fix a problem that is causing them particular pain? Set yourself a goal of getting in front of at least 2 new business teams each month – even if this goes against your corporate culture. Make it casual, don’t be stuffy… just explain what Data Governance is all about and how it could help them and then listen to what they have say. You may learn a lot if you listen closely.

Finally, if you are meeting with an IT team, you’ll want to come from a technical perspective but don’t gloss over the business value. I’ve found that even though you are in a room full of IT people, they want to know what value the program has for the company and are always interested in what the business is discussing in the meetings. So, you might start out by talking about Data Governance and what the goals are, talk about the technical tools being used, review the data fields that are of particular interest right now and the systems that are being reviewed, then close with the ‘recent happenings’ from the Data Governance Stewardship council.

It is absolutely imperative that you work on your soft skills to ensure you Data Governance program’s success.

If you have to, send out a survey to the rest of the company, specifically the ones you are doing the work for, to see what your customer ratings are. The feedback on how they rate you, and what you can do to improve, will help you even more in championing your cause.

A Time and a Place for DG

Brian — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:20:19 +0000

Recurring meetings are a must. If you are a new program, once a week, no questions asked. If you’ve got the ball rolling, everyone is participating and knows their role, every other week works nicely. But no matter what, make sure there is an understanding among your team that they must attend these meetings.

Make it easy on yourself by holding the meeting at the same time of day in the same location. You could have it every Thursday from 10-11AM, or every other Wednesday at 9:30… whatever works best for you. The key here is that you need to make sure people are attending regularly. A really good tip is to…

Track attendance in an excel spreadsheet and have a tally at the bottom that shows you a count of how many attendees you’ve had. If you see that number start to decline, you’ll need to re-engage your audience. Check out this previous post about doing just that.

Data Governance Conference – San Francisco, CA

Brian — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:52:33 +0000

Sorry for the long delay in posts. Its been quite busy the past month or so and I haven’t been able to get on here as much as I’d like. But, rest assured, I’ll be posting more often so check back frequently!

I just returned from the Data Governance Conference in San Francisco, CA. It was a great conference with many great speakers, both consultants and practitioners. One of the keynotes was from Larry English, the man for Data Quality. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out his book: Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality: Methods for Reducing Costs and Increasing Profits. His presentation was both funny and well thought out; appropriately enough, he was the keynote speaker Wednesday evening.

Other presenters included the head of the Data Governance Institute (a consulting firm), the consultant from IBM’s Data Governance program Steve Adler, and a very cool (though non-DG related) ‘hacker’ named Johnny Long.

I’ll write more about this, but I’d encourage anyone who didn’t attend to seriously consider attending the Orlando Conference in December. It’ll be great, and if nothing else, its a good excuse to go to FL in the winter.