Data owner

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Data owners (including data owners , English data owner ) is a term from the information management . Similar to the process owner who is responsible for a certain process, the data owner is responsible for a certain part of the company data (for example for supplier data ). Its role moves within the framework of governance and the quality of data . It ensures the implementation of the standards and guidelines that have been adopted by the Governance Committee or the body responsible for data quality assurance. The data owner is usually a manager who is assisted by a data steward in order to carry out his tasks .

The terms data owner and data steward are not used uniformly in the literature. For example, Boris Otto uses the term chief steward for the data owner, he calls the data steward the business data steward, and he also introduces the technical data steward as an expert in the technical representation of data in application systems, who is more like the database administrator .

The need for the establishment of the role of a data owner or the associated function is particularly evident in companies in data integration projects such as the construction and use of data warehouses and the merger of companies.

tasks

According to Meyer and Winter, the tasks of the data owner include the following three aspects:

1. Data content and use: Technical side of the data with regard to the meaning and quality of the data as well as the intended use.

  • Definition of the meaning ( semantics ) of the date including the technical description of the data ( metadata )
  • Technically correct mapping of reality to the data
  • Definition of value ranges for the attributes, identifications of the information objects and the structure of the classification systems (technical view, but not the technical view for which the database administrator is responsible)
  • Definition of the quality requirement (e.g. completeness, data integrity, timeliness) as part of the quality assurance of the data (quality planning and monitoring).
  • Determination, if necessary, reduction / expansion of the purpose of use

2. Algorithms and methods: Deriving data (e.g. aggregation) on the basis of existing data

  • Definition of logics and extraction and transformation rules for converting fine-grained data into management-oriented views, which is particularly important in data stores
  • Definition of derived data (e.g. calculation of the minimum use-by date of a batch from the date of manufacture and the expiration date)

This role of the data owner or data steward is also known as the measure owner .

3. Development and data provision

  • Definition of responsibilities for data collection, initial recording and continuous updating
  • Definition of protection and security requirements (e.g. confidentiality according to the rules for information protection)
  • Willingness to provide information about the importance, responsibilities, ...
  • Passing on the data to third parties and justification for rejection (e.g. refusal for legal reasons) and, if necessary, determination of a consideration
  • Ensuring that data is archived to the necessary extent (e.g. due to regulatory requirements) after it has been used and, if necessary, made available again.

Knowledge and skills

Data owners as well as data stewards should know the technical contexts - above all the business processes in which "their" data arise; In this respect, it makes sense that the data owner as well as the data steward come from one of the departments concerned. For the data steward, analytical skills are essential in order to be able to identify in cooperation with the creators of the data models developed in the projects whether they are compatible with the company's data landscape or whether adjustments to the data model of the project or the company-wide data model (UwDM) are required . For the coordination with the project team as well as with the data owner, the ability to work in a team and the mastery of argumentation and presentation techniques are essential.

Framework

In order to efficiently fulfill the tasks of the data owner and data steward, the following requirements must be created.

  • At least the heads of the departments - better still the management - must be aware of the importance of data responsibilities and name data owners as well as data stewards and ensure sufficient time to cope with the above-mentioned tasks in addition to their other tasks.
  • Data owners must be given the authority by the governance committee or management to make decisions about the three aspects listed above.

literature

  • Markus Meyer and Robert Winter in Reinhard Jung, Robert Winter: Data Warehousing 2000: Methods, Applications, Strategies, ISBN 3-7908-1356-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Data management as a strategic success factor (PDF; 441 kB)