Policy 7.3 - Corporate Information Custodianship

Effective Date: 20-March-00
Responsible Branch: Information Management Group

Management Services Volume Table of Contents | Amendment Log

Scope

This policy defines custodianship and describes the responsibilities of those who define, collect, or manage any corporate business information or corporate computer application (see Definitions).

Policy

Each discrete corporate information subject (e.g., "Opening"; "Employee"; "Asset") and each application (e.g., "Timber Tenure Administration"; "Client Management") shall be the responsibility of a single Custodian. Corporate information collection and management shall be the responsibility of Data Resource Managers.

A Custodian is accountable for:

• determining the business information and any applications required to meet the Ministry's goals;
• establishing and maintaining the standards and rules for that business information;
• managing the information and/or application as a vital Ministry resource;
• identifying responsibility for data integrity; and
• ensuring that conflicts in Ministry business needs are successfully resolved.

A Data Resource Manager is accountable for:

• ensuring high quality corporate data collection, entry, and management, to the relevant Data Custodian’s standards.

Obligations

The Custodian for information or an application is responsible for:

• ensuring that client needs are understood, articulated, and enshrined in the custodial standards and applications;
• sponsoring projects to ensure the business needs of the Ministry are satisfied from a corporate perspective, utilizing and encouraging shared data wherever possible to the widest possible audience;
• understanding, and assessing as necessary, the general quality and integrity of data within their mandate, and taking steps to continually improve it;
• ensuring that training and support is available to Ministry clients of the information or application; and,
• providing solutions to problems of a business nature that may arise.

The Data Resource Manager is responsible for:

• resourcing the collection, management, and maintenance of data, to the standards set by the Data Custodian and including any requirements specified in legislation or regulations;
• identifying business requirements for data collection and management, including ensuring that the relevant Custodian(s) is/are aware;
• retaining a focus on overall Forest Service needs while collecting information, to ensure data is collected for the purpose of maximizing the ability of staff to make good decisions;
• performing quality assurance to verify the completeness, correctness, quantity, and integrity of collected data;
• allocating resources for available training for their staff as necessary, and identifying where there are training needs or deficiencies; and,
• managing how data and systems are utilized in the course of business for their office.

Managing Change

A Custodian will actively manage the implementation of changes for their area, and where their actions affect others’ information resources. This includes assessing potential Ministry-wide impacts to policy, procedures, systems, and resourcing whenever there is a proposed change in one or more of those areas. Likewise, Custodians expect leaders of legislative and policy initiatives to investigate and analyze potential impacts on corporate information and application systems, well in advance of drafting changes.

Impact assessments are the joint responsibility of policy or business specialists (e.g., Resource Tenures & Engineering Branch, Forest Practices Branch, Financial Management Branch, etc.), systems specialists (Information Management Group), and representative Data Resource Managers (districts and/or regions).

Constraints

The underlying systems development environment is one of the constraining factors on a Custodian's ability to respond to change. Information Management Group remains responsible for the systems development methodology for all shared corporate applications, and the delivery of core services that maintain the integrity of corporate information. Information Management Group will also ensure that any requested changes to shared corporate information have the approval of all Custodians who have data or applications directly affected by the change.

Who is a Custodian?

A Custodian is a branch director. (District and Regional Managers are not Data Custodians because they do not have the mandate to act in a province-wide context.) The Custodian will normally be identified through consensus at the director level, or by using the Data Custodian Council as a resource. Where necessary, assignment will be made under the authority of the Executive.

Definitions

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.

Corporate application: a computer application that affects corporate information.

Corporate information: information that is of a permanent or lasting nature, is essential to the Ministry's operation, and falls within the Ministry’s mandate.

Data Custodian: The branch director who establishes province-wide policy, definitions, and rules for business information within their mandate, to enable the Ministry to gain maximum value from the information.

Data Custodian Council: A strategy group made up of those Data Custodians responsible for the more substantial Ministry information resources. This core group concentrates on major issues, and chooses Ministry-wide options, thus influencing the choices that other Data Custodians will have available. The Council is also a forum for contemplating impacts of legislative or policy changes.

Data Resource Manager: A generic title for those responsible for collecting and/or managing corporate data. The most senior manager in each office (district manager, regional manager, or branch director) is ultimately accountable for ensuring corporate data collection and management to an appropriate level of quality (i.e., following relevant Data Custodians’ standards), to enable effective business decisions.

IM/IT Advisory Committee: A senior management committee that provides advice and recommendations to executive on issues and plans relating to information management and information technology. It is through this group that projects are identified and funded. Membership includes district and regional management.

Ministry Client (from a Data Custodian’s perspective): any agency, company, office, or individual for whom services are rendered (e.g., a Ministry employee or Ministry office; another government Ministry or agency; a forest industry company or company employee; a member of the public).

Steward: A branch director who at the request of and on behalf of a Data Custodian, can be delegated technical decisions of how the Custodian’s 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). A Steward in the Ministry may act for another Data Custodian from the Ministry of Forests ("Internal" Steward), or may be a contact point for data from another ministry ("External" Steward).

References

• Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
  (see Introduction to the Act for more information)
• General Management Operating Policy
  (Chapter 8: Information and Technology Management)
• Quality Assurance Framework,
  Compliance & Enforcement Branch (http://wwwinternal.for.gov.bc.ca/enforce/QAFrame.htm)
• Statements of Responsibility for Data Custodians,
  Data Custodian Council, Ministry of Forests, September 1998 (http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/his/datadmin/index.htm)
• Statements of Responsibility for Data Resource Managers,
  Data Custodian Council, Ministry of Forests, September 1998 (http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/his/datadmin/index.htm)
• Systems Development Guides
  (Guide S35: Management Guide to Custodianship — http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/his/datadmin/index.htm), Information Management Group, Ministry of Forests