The big confusion in Data Governance roles

#10 Or how to clarify ownership

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When people defines Data Governance roles, they come up with a lot of questions :

“What’s the owner responsible for?” “What’s the difference between owners and stewards?” “Do I need owners AND stewards?” “Which comes first?” “How are they related with my data scientists and data analysts?”

Let’s clarify 👇

Agenda

1. Data owners first

2. Data stewards after

3. Unless…

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Data owners first

Let’s come back a moment on why you need to clarify ownership on data.

I know for some people it doesn’t make sense : why would you “own” data when you just need to manage it properly?

In an ideal world, yes managing is enough.

😈 But in real life, here’s what will happen :

Say you’re a business analyst for a Marketing team. They want to analyze past digital marketing campaigns addressed to premium customers.

Looking at the CRM, you find a segment “VIP-mail-0824” of customers targeted by the last e-mail campaign. And looking at the ads platform, you find another segment “Premium-1” of customers targeted by the last Facebook campaign.

Wait, is this the same segment? What’s the definition of a premium customer?

As an analyst, you’re not sure of the definition, it should probably be defined by someone more expert in terms of business knowledge. But who’s in charge of such a definition?

👉 This is a typical example of why you need clear data ownership.

But why is it a top priority to identify data owners?

1️⃣ Because you need a top-down approach on this. You need business sponsors for each future data governance initiative. Otherwise you won’t make it.

These sponsors are Data Owners. Convince them that structuring data through clear definitions, policies, roles and processes will help for better business decisions.

2️⃣ They will be in charge of identifying Data Stewards within their domains.
Which is the next step towards federated data governance.

🧑‍💼 Who are they?

They are Heads of Departments, Team Lead or C-level depending on the size of your organization.

💼 What do they do?

Data owners are accountable for the quality, privacy and compliance of their data domains by :

• Validating data definitions & policies

• Approving data quality requirements for their business objectives

• Meeting regularly in committees to review priorities

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Data stewards after

Let's move on to the next crucial role : Data Stewards.

Data Stewards are the backbone of your data governance efforts.

Once data owners have been identified and are on board, they will identify their Data Stewards.

😈 Coming back to our previous real life example :

Say the Data Owner has defined that a premium customer is a customer that is part of the VIP program. Great, you can now review your segments.

But wait, you need to have a correct information on their participation in the VIP program : since when are they part of it? Is there a minimum shopping basket to join the VIP program?

👉 This is a typical example of why you need Data Stewards : to define and maintain data quality rules.

🧑‍💼 Who are they?

Data Stewards are on the business side, usually chosen based on their deep business knowledge of specific data domains and their ability to manage data effectively. They can be senior analysts, managers, or subject matter experts within their departments.

💼 What do they do?

They bring the hands-on expertise and operational oversight required to implement and maintain data governance practices. They will :

1️⃣ Ensure data quality : they identify data quality issues, and coordinate corrective actions with the help of Data & IT teams.

2️⃣ Enforce Data Governance policies : they ensure compliance with data governance policies and standards set by Data Owners.

3️⃣ Act as a bridge : they bridge the gap between business units and technical teams. Data Stewards understand both the business context and some technical elements, making them key players in translating business needs into technical requirements.

You can checkout my post on the daily routine of a Data Steward.

Key differences between the 2 roles

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Unless…

Unless you are a “data-native” company. Like e-commerce or other digital services businesses. Data is your revenue.

In this case, talking about Data Owners and Data Stewards is just weird.

You usually already have Product owners who are collecting business needs for each business area. Then I’ve seen companies adding Data Product Managers who are in charge of supplying data for Product owners.

And finally a layer of Data Stewards managing operations on the data platform directly like metadata, storage, access rules.

⏩ Note that in this case Data Stewards have a much more technical role - very close to Data Engineers actually. Here they are part of your Data team, with data analysts and data scientists.

Wherever you are, you’ll have to define domains to make everything works.

🤯 But Charlotte, what’s a domain? Is it one owner by domain?

Let’s discuss this in the next post !

Charlotte

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I'm Charlotte Ledoux, freelance in Data & AI Governance.

You can follow me on Linkedin !