About Data Ownership
As organisations mature in their data management practices, it becomes important that data governance responsibility and accountability is established at the right level. This is where a person or team has the ability to produce data correctly, or consume data responsibly.
In most organisation this at the business unit or divisional level as data is typically generated and used at this level. The role of any central team becomes ensuring that there is consistency across standards, policies and definitions in the data.
About Data Ownership
All employees have a responsibility to ensure data that is created, transformed and used is of good quality throughout its lifecycle.
As data is generated across the organisation, data producers are responsible for ensuring the data is of good quality up to the end point of their business process where data consumers in other parts of the business may use it. The downstream data consumer are then responsible for the data and its quality within their processes. A producer is often a consumer as well.
Principles for data producers and consumers
Producer | Consumer |
|---|---|
A producer has the accountability for the people, processes and systems that generate and manages data | A consumer is… |
Data that is produced includes
| Data that is consumed include
|
Producers are accountable for quality Data definitions are clear and updated Access is appropriately provided to consumers
| Consumers must use data appropriately in line with the definition and purpose of the data Data quality must be maintained
|
Ensure adequate data controls are in place to ensure quality and appropriate access to consumers | Ensure data is accessed properly Engaging producers about inappropriate controls Notify producers about use and dependencies |