Introduction

Not long ago, I received an email offering a Gartner report, which shed light on the challenges organizations face when it comes to comprehending and clarifying the role of a data steward.

In this article, we will address some common misconceptions surrounding the responsibilities of a master data steward and provide a more accurate understanding of their role.

Misconception #1: It’s a Full-Time Job

Contrary to popular belief, being a data steward does not necessarily require a full-time commitment. The role is often part-time and assigned to line-function business users or application users, rather than being solely an IT or shared service responsibility. Think of it as an exception-based role, where only the most complex issues are routed to the information steward for resolution. In fact, resolving these challenging exceptions should not take more than a few minutes per week. If it does, it may indicate a need to review existing policies or evaluate the efficiency of the tools employed by the information steward.

Misconception #2: It Involves Data Entry

Data stewardship is not primarily focused on data entry tasks.

Misconception #3: It’s something IT or the shared service/data management office “does”

While master data stewards may possess a deep understanding of specific applications due to their frequent interaction, their main purpose is to support business requests related to master data. IT support is available to address application-specific inquiries.

Misconception #4: It’s maintaining and sustaining a master data management (MDM) app or data quality tool.

While MDM tool vendors link stewardship to updating master data records, again this is not the core function.

The report suggests that not all business users of applications are information stewards. But information stewards are “chief problem solvers” and so are often the few power users of applications.

In this paradigm, the role of information stewardship is seen as exception-based. Only the really challenging exceptions are routed to the information steward for resolution.

Resemblances in Data Stewardship Implementations

Based on my experience as an MDM consultant, I’ve observed several commonalities in the implementation of data stewardship roles across different organizations. Here are some key points to consider:

Data stewards and business alignment

Data stewards are deeply involved in the business side of operations and are not confined to IT departments. Although they may have a good understanding of certain applications, their role primarily revolves around assisting with business requests around master data.

Data stewards stand with both feet in the business, they’re not in IT, and hardly application power users. They might know a certain part of the application pretty well because they work so much with it. The role of a data steward is to support business requests around master data. This distinction ensures a more focused approach and allows IT support to address application-related concerns.

Data Maintenance Responsibilities

Data stewards are not responsible for maintaining MDM or data quality applications. These tasks typically fall under the purview of IT support.

However, data quality reports are often sent to data stewards. Instead of resolving the reported issues themselves, data stewards should redirect them to the appropriate data providers for review and corrective action. By involving data stewards in the creation and maintenance of master data, organizations can effectively reduce data quality issues since data stewards possess knowledge of data quality rules and can review incoming requests.

By seeing more data the data steward becomes more knowledgeable and it will be easier to spot anomalies in future master data requests. For this same reason, funnelling master data requests through a shared service centre is a great idea. This will enable data entry to be consistent and of higher quality than when multiple disparate data stewards or individual users are creating data.

Conclusion

In summary, the role of a master data steward should be understood as a position held by line-function business users or application users, not limited to IT or shared service personnel. Data stewards contribute to the integrity of the data entering the system and add value to the process.

By appointing data stewards and providing them with the necessary support, organizations can ensure the availability of accurate, high-quality data that reflects the real-life state of the business entity. Remember, data stewardship is a crucial aspect of achieving trustworthy and reliable data.