Roles and Responsibilities Archives - eGovernance

Who are Data Stewards and Why are They Important for Your Business?

eGovernance — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 03:20:22 +0000

In today’s data-driven world, information represents the company’s lifeblood. But, like any valuable asset, data requires careful management and protection. Enter the data steward. But who are data stewards and why are they important for your business? Understanding the role of the data steward and how it pertains to data governance is key.

In essence, the data steward acts as the guardian of data assets, ensuring their accuracy, consistency, accessibility, and usability. Data stewards generally work in IT but collaborate closely with departments across the organization. Thus, they act as a bridge between the technical and business sides, requiring a unique skillset.

Data Stewardship Puts Data Governance into Practice

Data stewardship plays a pivotal role in effective data governance, translating policies into practice. A data governance framework includes the policies and guidelines for data handling, quality, and security. Data stewards have responsibility for ensuring the implementation and enforcement of these policies.

For example, to enforce data quality standards and ensure trustworthy data for decision making, a data steward might conduct regular data audits to identify inaccuracies or inconsistencies. They could then implement data cleansing processes to eliminate duplicate entries, correct errors, and update outdated information.

Or, to ensure that data access falls within regulatory compliance restrictions, the data steward might design and oversee role-based user access controls. This helps the company achieve a fine balance between data democratization and critical data security.

In implementing data governance policies, the data steward collaborates closely with other data governance roles. For instance, data stewards work closely with data custodians, who provide technical support and maintenance related to data. They also work in tandem with data owners in various departments, as well as the data scientists who retrieve and analyze data.

Responsibilities of a Data Steward

Data stewards oversee all activities related to data management. This multi-faceted role includes several main categories of responsibility:

Data quality assurance – This involves monitoring data for errors or inconsistencies, as well as implementing processes to maintain data accuracy.
Data security and compliance – Data stewards ensure the protection of data from unauthorized access. They implement security measures, make sure data usage complies with legal and regulatory requirements, and raise awareness about data security best practices.
Data accessibility and usability – Stewards balance strict data security standards with making sure that authorized users can find and use data. This involves building a data inventory, maintaining data lineage, managing metadata, and so forth.
Data advocacy – Data stewards promote data value by educating stakeholders on data quality principles, encouraging responsible data usage, and promoting strategic uses of data, such as data-driven decision making.

Businesses May Have Multiple Data Stewards

This responsibility list looks daunting and often proves more than one data steward can reasonably accomplish. Consequently, a company may assign multiple stewards to handle various aspects of data stewardship.

For example, the organization may assign separate data stewards to work with specific types of data, such as customer data. They may also assign stewards according to business function, such as sales or R&D. Alternatively, a data steward may have responsibility for one or more IT systems, such as email.

Skills to Look for in a Data Steward

Because data stewards cover both technical and culture-focused activities, they need a balance of various types of skills. Without a doubt, the job requires technical skills, including data modeling, databases, and database management systems. And in fact, data stewards often report up through IT.

But data stewards also need interpersonal skills and business acumen. Because they act as a liaison between IT and business functions, in addition to promoting good data practices throughout the company, they must be able to communicate and collaborate effectively. Additionally, they often act as subject matter experts in their area of responsibility.

Who are Data Stewards and Why are They Important for Your Business? Explore Key Benefits

Data stewards play a central role in implementing data governance and ensuring a healthy data ecosystem. They not only protect and manage data, but they also help the company navigate a complex data landscape and leverage data for strategic advantage. And as data plays an increasingly vital part in decision making and innovation, this role has become mission critical.

To set the stage for success, hire the right people and give them the tools they need to thrive. eGovernance solutions for information governance offer powerful, cloud-based solutions to help organizations use their information effectively and drive data value.

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Data Governance Roles and Responsibilities Provide Framework for Business Initiatives

eGovernance — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 20:43:01 +0000

Proactive data governance drives data value, improving decision making and supporting innovation. But ensuring data accuracy, consistency, security, and compliance requires a coordinated effort. By clearly defining data governance roles and responsibilities, organizations can more effectively leverage data for business value.

Typical roles and responsibilities include data owners, stewards, custodians, and consumers, guided by a data governance committee. Individual organizations will, of course, adapt these roles according to their needs and organizational maturity.

Data Owner

The data owner refers to the person or group with authority and accountability for a specific dataset. Usually a senior manager or business leader, data owners define business requirements and rules for the data. They also establish quality standards and metrics and approve data policies and procedures.

For example, a marketing director owns customer data, overseeing customer segmentation, targeting, and personalization strategies. Likewise, a product manager owns the product data, driving the product development, launch, and feedback processes.

Data Steward

Data stewards include those responsible for implementing data policies and procedures. For instance, a data steward will help monitor data compliance with established regulations and internal standards. They may also educate the workforce on how to access, use, and share data to ensure compliance with privacy and security best practices.

Data Custodian

Data custodians oversee the technical aspects of data management. This includes the processes surrounding data storage, and well as backup and recovery, data access, and quality control.

For example, database administrators manage the databases that store the data, ensuring optimization and security. Data analysts, on the other hand, perform queries and reports on data using tools such as SQL or Python. Their insights and recommendations support decision making.

Data Consumer

Data consumers, as the name suggests, use data for a variety of purposes, from decision making to innovation. They play a key stakeholder role in data governance, as they have specific needs and expectations regarding the quality and availability of the data.

For example, marketing managers leverage data to personalize marketing campaigns. Or product managers developing new products collect data regarding user behavior to inform decisions about features to include.

Within the data governance framework, data consumers have responsibility for providing feedback and identifying issues. These may include issues such as errors or inconsistencies within the data set. They may also include problems with accessibility or data silos that diminish data value.

Data consumers also play a critical role in data security and compliance. By complying with security best practices and policies for data use, they help reduce risk.

Coordinate Data Governance Roles and Responsibilities to Drive Business Goals

The data governance committee includes stakeholders from across the organization. This committee oversees the implementation and maintenance of the data governance program. They begin by defining the vision and goals relating to the organization’s data, as well as the responsibilities of data owners, stewards, custodians, and consumers.

The committee will develop and approve data policies and procedures, ensuring they align with the company’s business goals and compliance requirements. They monitor and measure the performance of data governance activities. And they identify both risks and opportunities for improvement. Importantly, they serve as data champions.

For example, a healthcare organization’s data governance committee oversees the quality, privacy, and security of patient data across different departments. Likewise, a retail company’s data governance committee coordinates the collection and integration of customer data from various sources.

Jumpstart Data Governance Strategy with Expert Guidance

Effective data governance requires building data strategies one piece at a time. The data experts at eMazzanti Technologies and Messaging Architects will help your organization implement a structured and comprehensive program to reduce risk and increase data value.