Data Core · Data Governance · Module
Ownership
Who is accountable for each data set being right, current and appropriately used — one person, in the business rather than in a technical function.
The idea
How it works
Data quality is nobody’s problem where nobody owns it. Errors persist through several reports and are corrected separately in each, indefinitely.
Ownership belongs with whoever understands what the data means rather than with whoever stores it. The technical function is a custodian and cannot judge whether a value is right.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Name one owner per data set
In the business, not in the technical function. A committee is not an owner.
- 02
Separate owner from custodian
The owner decides what is correct; the custodian keeps it running. Confusing them means nobody judges correctness.
- 03
Give the owner authority to change it
Accountability without authority produces a name on a document.
- 04
Include ownership in handovers
It lapses silently when someone changes role, and nobody notices for a year.
One level in
The components of ownership
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Ownership belongs with whoever understands the meaning, not with whoever runs the system it sits in.
The other modules in data governance
Definitions and lineage
What each term means, where the figure comes from, and what happens to it on the way — the record that makes two reports reconcilable.
LearnAccess
Who may see what, on what basis, and how that is reviewed — balancing the cost of restriction against the cost of exposure deliberately.
LearnRetention and deletion
How long each kind of data is kept and what causes it to be removed — the decision that is always deferred and always accumulates.
Learn