Building an enterprise business glossary is a foundational step towards data governance and ensuring everyone in your organization speaks the same data language. It’s a powerful tool for clarity, consistency, and informed decision-making. But many organizations make a critical mistake that undermines the entire glossary project: they create terms without assigning any owner. Or, nearly as bad, they assign ownership to a team instead of an individual.

1. Why Individual Ownership Matters
2. The Term Owner’s Responsibilities
3. Empowering the Term Owner
4. In Conclusion

Let’s be clear: collective ownership is no ownership. When a term’s responsibility falls to a team, it often falls through the cracks. Everyone assumes someone else is taking care of it, and no one feels truly accountable. This leads to outdated definitions, inconsistent usage, and ultimately, a useless glossary.

The solution is simple yet powerful: always assign an individual’s name as the “owner” (or steward) of each term from the very beginning. Don’t wait. Don’t delegate. Make it a mandatory part of the term creation process.

Why Individual Ownership Matters

Assigning a specific individual as the term owner has several crucial benefits:

• Accountability: When someone’s name is attached to a term, they are directly responsible for its accuracy and upkeep. This fosters a sense of ownership and encourages them to take the task seriously.
• Clarity: It’s crystal clear who to contact with questions or concerns about a specific term. No more emailing a generic “data governance team” and hoping for a response.
• Proactive Management: Individual owners are more likely to proactively review and update their terms, ensuring the glossary remains relevant and accurate.
• Relevance: Requiring a named owner for each term helps ensure that the terms being defined are actually relevant and used within the company. If no one cares enough to own a term, it probably shouldn’t be in the glossary.

The Term Owner’s Responsibilities

The term owner’s role goes beyond simply defining the term. They are the guardians of its meaning and usage within the organization. Their responsibilities include:

• Defining and Maintaining Definitions: Ensuring the definition is accurate, up-to-date, and easily understood by everyone.
• Providing Context and Examples: Offering real-world examples of how the data associated with the term is used within the company. This helps bridge the gap between abstract definitions and practical application.
• Data Quality Stewardship: Taking responsibility for ensuring the quality of the data columns associated with the term meets the required standards. This might involve collaborating with data engineers and other stakeholders.
• Championing the Term: Promoting the correct usage of the term throughout the organization and acting as the point of contact for any questions or disputes.

Empowering the Term Owner

To truly empower term owners, avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. The term owner should not be required to gain approval from a data governance council before publishing or updating a definition. While a governance council can provide guidance and oversight, the term owner should have the autonomy to make decisions about their assigned terms. After all, they are the most invested in its accuracy and relevance.

This “buck stops with you” approach has two key advantages:

1. Agility: It streamlines the process and allows for faster updates, keeping the glossary current and useful.
2. Relevance: If someone is willing to own a term, it demonstrates that the term is actually important and used within the organization. This helps prevent the glossary from becoming bloated with unused or irrelevant terms.

In Conclusion

Building a successful enterprise business glossary requires more than just defining terms. It requires assigning clear ownership from the outset.

By empowering individual term owners and giving them the autonomy to manage their assigned terms, you can create a living, breathing glossary that truly serves your organization’s data needs.

This simple step can make the difference between a dusty, unused document and a powerful tool for data-driven decision-making.