Updated on 2022-09-15 GMT+08:00

Responsibilities

The data governance leadership team is comprised of the data governance sponsors and department owners. This team determines the strategic direction of the data governance. The leadership team has ultimate responsibility for how data governance is implemented, and for the promotion and execution of various policies. They have the final say when there are disputes; they monitor the data governance, and manage the data governance budget.

The data governance committee and the data governance working groups of the different domains are the execution teams of the data governance strategies.

  • The data governance committee consists of those responsible for data governance, data governance experts, and data architecture experts. It arranges data governance work for the enterprises, provides guidance, and conducts regular discussions on data governance within the enterprise, with the goal being more refined and better controlled data. To achieve the long-term goals established by the data governance leadership team, it is necessary to establish and manage data governance processes, formulate time based goals and create plans to achieve them, design data governance methods and general principles, maintain tools and platforms, assist working groups from various domains to conduct data governance, evaluate and report on the overall progress of data governance projects, and resolve cross-domain data governance issues and disputes.
  • The data governance working groups for different domains handle data governance within a given domain. These working groups formulate data governance objectives and work plans based on the data governance methods and general principles designed by the data governance committee, maintain the data assets of the domain, maintain and update the corresponding data standards and related metadata, design the data measurement rules of the domain, monitor and record data quality issues, continuously improve data quality, and proactively resolve data-related issues, to safely manage data assets of the domain and finally achieve the goal of data governance.

The data governance working group of a given domain is usually composed of the data owner, data representative, data steward, data specialist, and data architect.

  • Data owners are in charge of data governance at the domain level. A data owner must:
    • Formulate goals and work plans for the data governance in their respective domains and prioritize the execution of various tasks.
    • Create accountability for data governance, dividing up the work in their domain and assigning it to specific group members, follow up, and take responsibility for management of data governance within the group.
    • Design data quality specifications, collect and fulfill requirements on data, resolve data issues and adjudicate disputes.
    • Build and maintain the information architecture of the domain.
    • Cultivate a culture or atmosphere of domain-based data governance.
  • Data representatives are the leading expert for data governance within a domain. A data representative must:
    • Know the goals of data governance and be familiar with the methods and rules of data governance. They must know how to use data governance tools, identify key business processes and necessary IT systems. Data representatives need to understand how to further refine the data governance objectives within their domain, prioritize the refined objectives, and manage and execute objectives.
    • Manage and resolve issues and disputes as experts within their domain, and submit issues to data owners for final decisions if necessary.
    • Ensure the integrity, timeliness, accuracy, consistency, uniqueness, and effectiveness of business data; ensure that every user behavior is recorded, and each record is a piece of data; and report and evaluate data in the domain according to data quality requirements.
    • Build an information architecture for the domain and govern data in accordance with that architecture, watch over the data assets in the domain; and maintain, update, or publish corresponding data standards and data catalogs.
    • Meet upstream and downstream data requirements, and proactively identify these data requirements based on the application scenarios and business requirements of the domain. Data managers need to manage and push forward progress on these requirements.
    • Define the data security level of the domain based on related regulations and manage data access.
  • Data stewards assist in data governance in their domain. A data steward must:
    • Ensure that the data governance process and content of the domain comply with data governance requirements.
    • Assist the data representatives in tracking and resolving problems.
    • Sort out, maintain, and update metadata and data (including business objects, data standards, and data models) of the domain.
    • Promote the application of data governance tools and platforms in the domain, and maintain the data governance tools and platforms.
  • Data specialists form an expert team for data governance in a given domain.

    They use professional skills to assist the data representatives to complete diverse data governance tasks assigned by data owners based on the data governance plans for the domain.

  • Data architects carry out the data governance work at the IT level. A data architect must:
    • Develop and maintain data systems or sub-systems in their domain to ensure that data is recorded in the system and that data standards, quality guidelines, security, master/reference data management, and data services are all promoted throughout the system.
    • Provide data system information such as metadata, data dictionary, and data lineage.
    • Assist in IT-related data governance.
    • Ensure that the technical solutions for the data system comply with the information architecture of the domain and that selected technology can assist in the fulfillment of requirements during long-term data development.