Roles and Participants | Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis (OIPA)

Roles

Data governance requires a team effort. The following roles help lead data governance at York University:

The Data Trustee is a senior executive that is accountable for the data in one or more domains. Data Trustees have decision-making authority regarding the authoritative sources of data that are managed and created by the central unit.

Major responsibilities include:

Identifying and appointing Data Stewards.
Ensuring access to resources in support of data governance activities.
Approving and implementing appropriate policies and practices to ensure the accuracy, integrity, accessibility, and availability of York’s institutional data.
Overseeing and approving data definitions, classifications and quality.
Resolving issues escalated from the data stewardship committees.

The Data Steward is a senior manager that is responsible for the data in one or more sub-domains. Data Stewards are required to be experts on the data within their data sub-domain(s).

Major responsibilities include:

Managing and overseeing data assets within a sub-domain.
Leading the definition of data elements and documenting business rules, data standards, and data quality rules.
Managing data quality issues, coordinating data producers, and advising on data interpretation.
Supporting the data classification process.
Drafting and recommending data policies to the Data Trustees.
Ensuring compliance with applicable policies, procedures, and standards.
Developing operational KPIs for their respective sub-domains and reviewing quality metrics toward continuous improvements in data integrity and the resolution of data issues.
Approving and ensuring compliance regarding the release of, responsible use of, and access to data for which they are responsible.

The Data Custodian is usually an IT professional who is responsible for the technical management and security of a particular data system in one or more sub-domains.

Major responsibilities include:

Ensuring solution design and implementation are done in accordance to policies and architecture principles for data and information security.
Ensuring data transformation is done in accordance with architecture principles.
Ensuring security practices are used effectively for all supported solutions and technologies.
Managing data quality issue resolution processes in partnership with Data Stewards.
Ensuring data content and changes can be audited.

Data Trustees, Data Stewards, and Data Custodians receive onboarding facilitated by the Data Governance team, including an overview of York’s data governance, sponsored projects, and their roles & responsibilities.

Hierarchy

The following diagram illustrates the relationship between Data Trustees, Data Stewards, and Data Custodians:

The Chief Data Officer is a senior management level executive that's responsible for implementing the enterprise-wide data strategy, governance and management and accountable for data quality, security and compliance.
The Data Trustee is a senior management level executive that's accountable for the data in one or more domains.
Data Trustees have significant responsibility over the central unit creating and managing the authoritative source of data.
The Data Steward is a senior / mid level manager that's accountable for the data in one or more sub-domains.
Data Stewards are typically SMEs of data in their sub-domains.
The Business Application Owner is a senior / mid level manager responsible for articulating business needs.
The Data Custodian (also called the "Application IT Owner") is an IT professional responsible for technical environments and database structures.