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Data Custodianship Overview
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Defining meaning behind the term "Custodianship", in general, is about clear accountability within the organization for its
information resources. We put effort into identifying the Custodian role to ensure there is management accountability
at the
business table for business issues. This may seem like a small or simple thing, but most organizations have difficulty with such
accountability.
This document is intended to be a detailed, but brief, description of Data and Application Custodianship. There is significantly
more detail in Guide S35 - Management Guide to Custodianship. Custodians are assigned at the Branch Director level since they
have the resources to deal with province-wide standards.
Throughout this document, references to corporate information or corporate data will be made frequently. Corporate information
is simply information that is of a permanent or lasting nature and is essential to the ministry's operation. Defining information
as corporate implies that standards for definition, entry, update, and use are in place and actively followed by those who access
the information. These standards can add significant cost to the management of such information, but they're usually worth it!
Defining information as being essential to the ministry's operation is a management decision, and
that decision is the ultimate
responsibility of the Data Custodian.
The rationale for defining Custodianship is twofold:
- Information is critical to the ministry and is often shared across the ministry.
- Applications that affect corporate information must be planned and
managed at the highest quality assurance level, and coordinated across each program area to attain maximum benefit
for the business.
Custodians are responsible for deciding what information and/or applications are important for the ministry to use in a
particular subject area, and are responsible for validating that the ministry's business interests are served by the investment
in that information or application(s). We define two distinct Custodian roles: a Data Custodian and an Application
Custodian. Custodians are assigned at the Branch Director level since they have the resources to deal with province-wide
standards (i.e. a District or Regional Manager by definition cannot be a Data or Application Custodian). There is an
overview of DC/AC responsibilities in Guide S35.
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Information management and application delivery are corporate (ministry-wide) concerns. The scope of responsibility of a
Data Custodian for an information item is the entire ministry, not only the Data Custodian's own organizational area. It should be
unambiguously clear to the rest of the ministry that the Data Custodian is ultimately responsible for the rules around the
definition, collection, use, and disposal of the information. They define the information structures (what information should be
collected) and standards (what level of detail the information should be collected to) within their program area for the entire
province.
Data Custodians therefore provide a leadership role in enabling ministry staff to derive the best possible benefit from the
investment made in the gathering of information.
It is business information that is important to the ministry, and the intent of defining the term "Data Custodian" is to clarify
that those responsible for the business are responsible for the information that concerns that business.
See also Data Custodian Roles & Responsibilities.
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Stewards have a subset of Data Custodian responsibilities, acting at the request of and on behalf of a Data Custodian.
Stewards ensure that a set of the Data Custodian's information is available if the Data Custodian does not have the
appropriate operational resources to provide the necessary functions. A Steward, therefore, by definition is already a Data
Custodian with Data Custodian responsibilities for their own data. The Steward role becomes relevant when another Data Custodian
requests that data be stored using the Steward's operational resources.
The Data Custodian therefore specifies the business use of the information and is still responsible for it, defining
its structure, format, content, and how the information relates to other business information, but might delegate technical
or operational matters to the Steward, such as the decision as to how the information is stored and retrieved. The Steward
then ensures that the technical integrity of the information meets the published standards.
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Information management and application delivery are corporate (ministry-wide) concerns. The scope of responsibility of
an Application Custodian for an application is the entire set of users of that application, not only their own organizational
area. Application Custodians provide a leadership role and cooperate to the best of their ability with relevant Data Custodians
in enabling ministry staff to derive the best possible benefit from the use of an application.
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As mentioned before, clear accountability is required for information, to ensure collected ministry data is relevant to the
business, and accurate. The description of Data Custodian above indicates the Data Custodian is fully responsible, but in reality,
this accountability is split two ways.
The second area of accountability rests with those who actually collect the information. In most
cases in our ministry this means district or regional staff. In essence the accountability for data collectors means they are
responsible for accurate measurement and entry according to the standards set by the Data Custodian. This data collection and
management role is called Data Resource Manager. Again, although district staff may be doing most of the actual collection and
management, the senior manager of the office (e.g. the District Manager, Regional Executive Director, or Branch Director) is
accountable.
Although collectors are in a sense "custodians" of accurate data, this is not the same as the defined term Data
Custodian, which refers to the leadership role that branch directors perform.
See also Data Resource Manager Roles & Responsibilities.
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The Information Management Branch (IMB) cannot act as the Custodian of business information or a business application,
because those responsible for the business are responsible for the information that concerns that business. IMB does act
as a custodian in areas integral to delivering ministry's information management infrastructure, such as security,
technology assets, and the corporate data dictionary.
IMB's mandate as it relates to information and application custodianship is to ensure the appropriate infrastructure
is built within the ministry to gain the most effective use from information systems over time. IMB cannot dictate the
business use of information or what business procedures are implemented; that responsibility lies purely within the business
area.
If you have any questions please contact the Data Administration Section staff.
Guide S35 - Management Guide to Custodianship
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