Designing Effective Data Governance
Insights, frameworks, and tools to help structure oversight for your data governance capability
Data governance is not a project—it’s an ongoing need for every institution. To ensure that data governance is built to last, campus leaders should design their initiative for the long haul. Effective capability review and design will head off many of the issues that disrupt and derail enterprise governance initiatives in higher education.
Use this playbook to effectively structure and staff data governance committees, plan for sustainability, and set implementation standards and policies.
Section 1: Data Governance Committees
Bicameral data governance committee structure
Effective data governance comprises two capabilities: strategic oversight and implementation. To ensure that institutions are able to pursue data governance in a way that is supportive of their shared institutional goals, a “Data Strategy Committee” should be used to determine executive prioritization of data governance work. To execute on the strategy, a “Data Working Committee” should be assembled. Individuals in the working committee focus on making headway against the strategic data priorities.
Suggested committee member lists
To ensure appropriate institutional representation across both levels of committee, the selection process should consider individuals from across all campus domains. We created a table of potential committee members from different campus functions, mapping the seniority of an individual to the recommended committee for their participation.
Strategy committee member selection checklist
The Data Strategy Committee will be expected to meet a few times each year (typically once per quarter or semester, but sometimes less often), and use their time together to identify and prioritize the institution’s data needs. Those selected for the committee should be able to make the appropriate time commitment, as well as lend their full, vocal support to enterprise-wide data initiatives on campus.
Sample strategy committee charter
The Data Strategy Committee—or the Data Governance Steering Committee as it is called at the University of Wisconsin, Madison—should have a charter to assure that everyone has a shared understanding of the expectations and responsibilities of the group. Codifying this information in a project charter helps communicate the importance and structure of the Committee with the rest of the institution, and provides guidelines for initial efforts to be undertaken.
Working committee member selection checklist
The Data Working Committee will be expected to meet once per week or month, and use their time together to draft and approve data definitions as guided by the data strategy committee, oversee data quality assurance mechanisms, and assign and regulate data stewardship roles. Those selected for the committee should be able to make the appropriate time commitment and possess the necessary skills and competencies to be an active contributor to data definitions, data sensitivity conversations, and ongoing data management initiatives.
Section 2: Initiative Leadership and Organizational Continuity
Data governance continuity plans
When individuals leave or join an institution, data governance initiatives can easily be derailed. New leadership may bring in different ideas for implementing data governance, or key players in existing oversight models may leave gaps in operational data governance processes. To head off disruptions from the outset, leaders should design data governance oversight models to include a single source of initiative accountability, and appropriate continuity plans to manage leadership transition.
Sample data governance director role
The organizational lead for data governance should be a campus-facing role that acts as a liaison between the various invested stakeholders. Individuals should have executive presence and authority, with a reporting line that emphasizes cross-institutional partnership. At Washington University in St. Louis, the Director for Data Governance will report to the Office of the Provost, and liaise with units and IT groups across two campuses.
Enterprise shared asset statement
Securing buy in from new leaders joining the institution is easier when campus has made a clear public statement regarding data’s strategic importance. By presenting a culture that values data for decision-making, institutions create an expectation of collaboration and stewardship around data and analytics efforts before new leaders take up their role.
Data user community principles
Reinforcing the culture of data sharing among data users helps embed “data as a strategic asset” thinking in the campus community, and provides bottom-up sustainability for data initiatives.
To access some reporting tools, such as Tableau Server, University of Kentucky campus members must agree to a set of “Analytics Community Principles.” These guidelines promote a culture of collegiality around data use. The principles identify data as a communal asset that should be shared across campus whenever appropriate, with respect to data privacy concerns. The overall message of the principles is clear—a culture of sharing will advance the university’s mission far better than a culture of data ownership.
Data governance onboarding checklist
When individuals join the institution, they are likely arriving from an organization with different data governance structures and processes. To ensure smooth onboarding, data governance sponsors should provide clear steps for new executive leaders to understand three domains: the institution’s vision for data governance, the design and purposes of the initiative in place, and the role to be played by the individual joining the institution in driving those processes forward.
Section 3: Implementation and Stewardship Frameworks
Data domain mapping process
Selecting appropriate data stewards requires a high-level understanding of the data domains in use across the organization. Tasking frontline workers in those functions to oversee data governance implementation and take accountability for data within their purview will see faster results in data definition and quality improvement initiatives.
Institutional data steward domain map
To help fast-track domain identification on any campus, the University of Washington’s Data Map provides high level data subject areas and lower-level business domains to jumpstart your data steward assignment process. The full Data Map gives details of each business domain’s data custodians (some domains have multiple stewards), and their contact information.
Data steward role overview
When data governance responsibilities are viewed as an “add-on” demand to existing roles, workers are more apt to feel overburdened, and shun data efforts in favor of tasks and expectations outlined in their formal job description. To ensure that data responsibilities were elevated to the appropriate level of consideration in employees’ performance management, George Washington University incorporated data stewardship roles and responsibilities into the job descriptions of affected employees and new hires.
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