Data Custodian/Steward Responsibility Agreement

Definitions[1]

  • Data Custodian: The branch director[2] who establishes province-wide policy, definitions, and rules for business information within their mandate, to enable the ministry to gain maximum value out of the information.
  • Steward: A branch director who at the request of and on behalf of a Data Custodian, can be delegated technical decisions of how the data will be stored and retrieved (province-wide), or operational decisions of how systems processes will act on the data to maintain its technical integrity (province-wide). This would only happen if the Data Custodian does not have the appropriate operational resources available to provide the necessary functions.
  • Application Custodian: The branch director who sponsors projects to develop information systems, and provides ongoing support for those systems, to enable staff to meet business needs.
  • Data Resource Manager: A generic title for someone who is responsible for collecting and/or managing corporate data (to the standards set by the Data Custodian). The most senior manager in each office (district manager, regional executive director, or branch director) is ultimately accountable for ensuring corporate data collection and management is done properly (e.g. in the district) to enable effective business decisions.

 
Top

Preface

Where a Data Custodian does not have the appropriate operational resources available to provide necessary technical or operational functions (e.g. manage a spatial database), they may delegate decisions about how their information is stored and retrieved to a Steward. Such delegation would be completed through a shared agreement, including some or all the responsibilities listed below.

Note: Business accountability cannot be delegated from the Data Custodian.

The intent of a Data Custodian and a Steward having a responsibility agreement is so that users of the data will clearly understand who and how to resolve a problem they have with data standards or data access. It will also help the staff in the corresponding areas (DC and Steward) better judge their working responsibilities.

These relationships (between DC and Steward) are also used in managing external data sources. This is where a Steward may exist within the Ministry of Forests and Range, acting as a coordinating source for MoFR staff, for data from an external Data Custodian (e.g. MoFR Steward for TRIM data [DC is Environment] is Resource Tenures & Engineering).

 
Top

Scope of Information

The key first point is agreeing which sets of information are within the scope of the agreement; the rest of the document outlines the detailed responsibilities against those sets of information. Describe the data in scope (e.g. Range Tenures, non-tenure legal information, etc). See http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/his/datadmin/pda_list.htm for an overview of the Data Custodians’ general scope of responsibility for data.
Top

Responsibilities

Data Custodian

Steward

Data Structures

  • decides attributes
  • how to go and do fieldwork (i.e. standards for data collection)
  • answers questions about how the data relates to the business
  • specifies business use of the information, including structure (data model) from a business perspective, content, and how the information relates to other business information

Data Structures

  • implements the data model in physical structures; decides how the data is physically captured and stored (e.g. format, lineweight, color, etc)
  • answers questions about how to access the data
  • technical documentation
  • Steward may provide built in checks to catch simple entry errors, depending on available resourcing. Ensures integrity of the information meets the published standards. Steward has only limited responsibility for data content and this agreement cannot increase that.

Data Management

  • define/manage business (policy, standards) changes and impacts
  • initiates application development (with AC)
  • client support for business problems

Data Management

  • ensures processes are such that the latest data is being used (especially for external DCs)
  • database rollover/conversion due to business changes
  • may manage or implement the entire process of assembling the data from disparate sources
  • identify impacts due to technical change
  • operational support such as data cleaning or conversion
  • assist DC with technical issues w.r.t. application development
  • client support for data management

Data Integrity

  • defines Q/A requirements
  • assesses the degree of accurate and complete data collection

Data Integrity

  • establishes processes for data collectors to follow to meet edit criteria; entered into database "cleanly" (technically clean and technically complete)
  • assesses the data for technical quality and publishes those results

Training/Support

  • business training (with AC)

Training/Support

  • w.r.t. scope of agreed involvement; generally technical in nature

Information & Reporting

  • define standard business reports
  • retains responsibility for customized business interpretations, and negotiates with Steward for delivery of standard reporting functions.

Information & Reporting

  • may have to also negotiate with AC for technical delivery of standard reporting functions
  • may produce standard reports for DC

Change Management

  • policy and standards
  • provide advance notice of proposed business changes and corresponding impacts on data structures, and will negotiate resources necessary to implement the change

Change Management

  • work with DC to identify impacts of business changes on relevant data structures
  • provide advance notice of proposed physical changes and corresponding impacts on data structures; will consult with the Data Custodian to quantify the business impacts and will negotiate resources necessary to implement the changes

Contact & Escalation Procedures

  • how a data user can get further assistance in utilizing the data resource or application
  • To notify a Data Custodian of a lack of data integrity in a dataset, if the data is from an MoFR source, contact the Data Custodian directly.

Contact & Escalation Procedures

  • To notify a Data Custodian of a lack of data integrity in a dataset, if the data is from an external [other ministry] source, contact the Steward, who will coordinate communication to the external Data Custodian.
 

Footnotes

[1] More information is available in Guide S35 - the Management Guide to Data Custodianship [back to "Definitions"]

[2] District and Regional Executive Directors are not Data Custodians because they do not have the mandate to act in a province-wide context. [back to "Definitions"]
 

Original template developed by:

Data Custodian Council Working Group
Al Becker, Business Design
John Brodie, Forest Practices
Scott Clark, Resource Tenures & Engineering
Greg Goss, Compliance & Enforcement
Jeremey Janzen, Information Systems (Chair)
Doug Say, Information Systems