Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
up to this role. Remember that true success in this environment is more easily
achieved through a solid partnership between business and IT. It is time to
take a step back and reassess how data ownership is handled.
Who Really Owns the Data?
''Owns'' is a strong word, but someone must have the responsibility of
managing and shepherding this process. There is usually some confusion about
who really owns the data within an organization. Often, no one steps forward
to claim data ownership, or, conversely, multiple groups claim ownership,
including different business areas and systems.
Data is a by-product of how the business is run. Although systems profes-
sionals develop the applications that enable the business to keep running, the
business community is responsible for driving what functions and rules are
used for running the business. The business should drive the organization's
capability and function. For example, the accountants must set forth the criteria
that constitute a legal accounting transaction, not the developers. Likewise,
the business decides and drives what data must be captured, how it is to be
used to keep the company running, and what is needed for reporting and
analysis.
Often, people avoid being named an owner of anything. ''Data ownership''
sounds ominous and is perceived as just more work, or sometimes as being
assigned an impossible task. Too often these responsibilities are assigned with
no additional time, resources, or funding given to the data owner. Ownership
often already exists, but usually informally. Think about who you would
ask about the real meaning of the financial account structure. Who knows the
most about details of insurance claim payments? The person who pops into
your mind first is often the acting data owner.
Another way to try to identify business data ownership is to track the
path for resolving data problems. The person who has to sift through a
report presented to upper management with misleading or incorrect data is
a candidate data owner. The data owner may already be identified as a
subject
matter expert (SME)
. It may be best to ease into this by simply identifying
the primary business contact for the different types of data. If ''official'' data
ownership is too vague or unclear for business people to accept, then start by
identifying primary contacts for the different kinds of data. Table 8-1 shows a
sample of how data ownership can be tracked.
This process can be implemented at several levels. To get started, it may
be helpful to identify ownership for an entire business application system, a
module within a system, or a specific table. Begin at the higher level and work
to lower levels when additional people have expertise in the different parts of
an application. As the organization matures with data governance, ownership
may shift toward business functions or business processes.
