Data Governance Revitalization Stage Two

Data Governance Council (Complete)

The Data Governance Council was established in April 2020. Its mission is to build on the recommendations of Stage One by reviewing targeted aspects of existing data governance processes and make actionable recommendations that will lead to a sustainable U-M Data Governance program. The Council meets monthly to discuss use cases related to these areas of focus and works on specific and actionable recommendations for improvement.  A meeting calendar, agendas, and minutes, can be found here.

Approach

The Data Governance Council has identified the following areas of focus for their work in 2020:

  • Data Availability and Sharing
    Document existing and desired processes. Establish common guidelines for obtaining access to data. Wherever possible, automate data request processing.
  • Data Quality
    Identify opportunities for improvement in how data quality issues are addressed. Work to improve consistency of data definitions. Publish data quality metrics.
  • Roles, Responsibilities, and Appointments
    Simplify data stewardship structure. Create consistency in roles and alignment on responsibilities. Improve maintenance of Data Governance structure.

The first set of recommendations will be centered on Data Availability and Sharing and will cover the topics of:

  • Data access request process
  • Decisions and escalations
  • Reviews and audit.

Data Governance Council Accomplishments (Spring 2020-Fall 2021)

  • Created and maintained information about shareable data sets to help requesters find what data sets and data fields are available for request.
  • Provided a ticketing system to manage request submission, processing, approval, and reporting for access to datasets.
  • Developed and documented processes and guidelines for data request submission, processing, approvals, escalations, reviews and audit, in order to maintain quality and consistency.
  • Conducted a review of all roles involved in the data request process and streamlined the role structure.
  • Created a forum for data stewards that will enable data steward education, support common practices, and build relationships around a shared campus data vision.
  • Conducted discovery of current access to data and recorded historical information to enable audits of data sets that are currently being shared.
  • Recommended that the Council disband and create a permanent Data Governance Advisory Committee to begin meeting in 2022.

Data Governance Council Members

  • Laurie Alexander, Libraries/Academic Affairs
  • Sol Bermann, ITS Information Assurance
  • Wendy Bezotte, Michigan Medicine/Medical School
  • Andrea Bolash, College of Engineering
  • Christopher Brooks, School of Information
  • Chris Eagle (co-chair), ITS Strategy and Planning
  • RaShonda Flint, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
  • Vikki Hamilton, University Development
  • Caitlin Holman, Academic Innovation
  • Steve Lonn, Enrollment Management
  • Amber MacKenzie, ITS Information Quest
  • Tracy Pattok (co-chair), Office of Budget and Planning/Provost
  • Cheryl Soper, Financial Operations
  • Denise Stegall, UMHR/Business and Finance.
  • Svetla Sytch (co-chair), ITS Information Assurance