Role of ownership in data governance

Data ownership dictates the rights, responsibilities, and governance of data assets within an organization. Assigning clear ownership roles increases accountability and stewardship, and clearly defines who is responsible for each data asset across your teams — see Handling metadata for how ownership ties into metadata management.

In Dawiso, use the ownership cards to assign objects to specific team members, facilitating efficient data stewardship and governance. An admin can assign the following roles to any data asset:

• Data owner
• Data steward

Data owner

A data owner is responsible for overseeing and protecting data domains, spaces, applications, and fields, ensuring their proper use and integrity.

Key responsibilities include:

• Collaborating with data stewards to ensure effective data governance.
• Focusing on ownership and data governance of data within their specific domain.
• Defining and enforcing the implementation of processes and guidelines for data management.
• Ensuring the organization understands the data under their ownership and its significance.
• Prioritizing data quality work and access control processes.
• Reviewing and authorizing access requests, defining eligibility criteria for access.
• Advocating for confidentiality topics and maintaining security classification of assets.

Data steward

A data steward acts as an oversight or governance role, responsible for ensuring the quality and fitness for purpose of the organization’s data assets. They work closely with data owners to implement processes and guidelines for safe data management.

Key responsibilities include:

• Implementing processes and guidelines for the safe custody, transport, and storage of data.
• Collaborating closely with data owners to support effective data governance.
• Ensuring the quality and fitness for purpose of the organization’s data assets.
• Managing daily activities related to data quality within their domain.
• Maintaining metadata updates and their quality to facilitate data management.
• Providing user support and serving as a point of contact for data-related queries.
• Organizing and governing data, acting as a librarian for data documentation and organization.
• Monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) related to data usage and quality to identify areas for improvement.

Without an assigned data owner or data steward, access requests and security classification decisions have no accountable approver, and data quality issues can go unnoticed until they affect downstream reports.