The Institutional Data Resource Management Policy (SPG 601.12) establishes responsibilities for managing institutional data as a strategic university asset. The University of Michigan’s data stewardship framework is central to the successful implementation of this policy.
Data Stewardship Roles and Responsibilities
The U-M data stewardship structure, established in 1994, defined the following roles:
- Executive Data Steward: Executive officers with policy-level responsibility for managing a major area of the university’s information resources.
- Delegated Data Steward: Senior university officials with policy-level responsibility that have been designated by a data steward to serve as the delegated authority for a specific data area.
- Data Manager: University officials and their staff that have operational-level responsibility for the capture, maintenance, and dissemination of data for specific data areas.
- Data Management Integration Coordinator: University staff who are responsible for facilitating and resolving shared data management issues among central offices, schools and colleges, and Michigan Medicine.
Growing complexity and proliferation of data across the institution, coupled with an increased focus on privacy, ethics, and compliance, has put significant pressure on the university’s legacy data governance model.
A streamlined data stewardship structure is necessary to create alignment, ensure consistency, and strengthen ability to address growing data complexity and meet the strategic data needs of the university. Data stewardship roles are in the process of being reframed to facilitate well-governed access to and use of institutional data.
Executive Data Steward
Executive Data Stewards are high-ranking officers at the university that retain ultimate authority over a specific area of data. Executive Data Stewards may appoint a Data Area Liaison to support Data Stewards in their data area.
Executive Data Steward responsibilities include:
- Addressing escalations from data stewards to serve as a final point of decision for data access requests in their data area.
- Collaborating with other Executive Data Stewards to resolve complex or sensitive cross-area institutional data issues.
- Taking accountability for the completeness, accuracy, and integrity of data in their area.
Data Steward
Data Stewards are responsible for a specific area of UM institutional data. Data stewards are typically senior-level university officials who are empowered to oversee a specific area of institutional data.
Data Steward responsibilities include:
- Maintaining knowledge of laws, regulations, policies, best practices relevant to data area
- Reviewing, approving or declining data access requests.
- Working with other data stewards to address cross-area data requests.
- Maintaining a catalog for the data in their area and establishing procedures that ensure data integrity and quality.
- Promoting relevant training, education, and awareness.
Data Custodian
The Data Custodian is a person or a group that creates and/or maintains institutional data. The custodian may be an IT team, unit/department, or a researcher.
Data custodians must work with data stewards to ensure all data steward responsibilities are fulfilled for all data sets within the data steward’s domain.
Data Custodian responsibilities include:
- Working with data stewards to establish procedures to ensure completeness, accuracy, and integrity of data.
- Working with data stewards and ITS Information Assurance to classify the data for sensitivity and criticality, and ensuring appropriate data protection.
- Establishing and maintaining a data catalog for their area.
- Collaborating with other data custodians to establish procedures to ensure completeness, accuracy, and integrity of data.
Data Area Liaison
Some data areas may choose to appoint a Data Area Liaison. This optional role supports Data Stewards with the enablement and monitoring of data governance processes in the data area.
To learn who fills data stewardship roles at the University of Michigan, see Data Areas & Stewards.