What is it?
While good data governance is everyone’s responsibility, agencies need to clearly define the key people who will be responsible for governing and managing data across the organisation. Assigning responsibilities to specific roles ensures there are specific people within the organisation who are responsible for ensuring that data is appropriately managed throughout its lifecycle.
The NSW Data & Information Custodianship Policy directs the development and implementation of data and information custodianship roles and responsibilities. It also includes a Custodianship Model that sets out specific data and information roles. While the use of a standardised model can be a key enabler of cross-agency collaboration, in practice it is recognised that many variants of this model exist across the NSW Government. This is because how agencies assign roles across an organisation tends to depend on many factors – most importantly, the data maturity and size of the agency.
To ensure this Toolkit meets agency needs, outlined below is an adapted version of the Custodianship Model. The adapted model is specific to data (i.e. excludes information management) and describes the roles in functional terms rather than using traditional role titles (e.g. Data Custodian, Data Steward, Data Owner, Data Sponsor). The purpose of this is to ensure that people are assigned responsibility for undertaking these functions, and to allow agencies to assign these functions in ways that work for them.
| Function | Main Responsibilities | |
|---|---|---|
Accountable Executive Accountable Executives have accountability for the data and are generally the responsibility of the Agency Head (Secretary, Chief Executive, or equivalent authority), however this role is often delegated to a designated Senior Executive. This role is typically referred to as the Data Sponsor or the Data Owner. |
| |
Responsible Executive Responsible Executives are generally Directors with delegation from the Accountable Executive to exercise overall responsibility for a specified data asset. This role is typically referred to as the Data Custodian. |
| |
Operational Data Manager Data Managers are generally business managers, process owners or subject matter experts with the greatest operational stake in the content of the data asset. They are responsible for operational (frontline) data management and for stewarding the data through the data pipeline. This role is sometimes referred to as the Data Steward and is seen as the ‘gatekeeper’ to accessing the data asset. |
| |
Data Creator Data Creators are any employee, contractor or consultant who captures or creates data on behalf of the agency, to be processed as a data asset. This role is sometimes referred to as the ‘Supplier’ of data to government. |
| |
Data User Data Users can be anyone, public and government, who uses government data. |
|
Why is it important?
Under the State Records Act 1998 (NSW), agencies are responsible for the creation, management, protection and maintenance of their data, even when these management responsibilities have been delegated to another agency. It is important that agencies assign staff specific data responsibilities to ensure data is managed appropriately across its full lifecycle. A clear understanding and acceptance of custodianship roles and responsibilities can also help maximise benefits and minimise costs associated with data management for agencies, and lead to greater efficiency along data value chains.
What good looks like
- Assigned: responsibilities are defined and formalised across the organisation and at all stages of the data lifecycle.
- Appropriate: responsibilities are appropriately matched with the responsible person’s skills, expertise and delegation level.
- Understood: while some staff are formally assigned data management roles, all staff who handle data understand the data responsibilities associated with their role.
- Shared: data responsibilities are spread across all levels of the organisation and are not just the responsibility of the IT department, a specific data governance body or team.
- Specified: data sharing agreements and service arrangements clearly specify data rights, including whether responsibilities for the data will be transferred to a third party.
How to achieve good practice
- Assign data responsibilities across the organisation and ensure the data is mapped to the responsible person(s) in a data catalogue.
- Develop a data governance framework or policy that specifies who is responsible for the various aspects of the data, including who is responsible for giving permissions for open release and data sharing.
- Formalise data responsibilities where they already exist and avoid assigning responsibility to anyone who is not already undertaking the role in their day-to-day work.
- Ensure responsibilities are matched to the responsible person’s skills, expertise and delegation level. If parts of your agency lack data expertise, recruit new staff or leverage staff in different areas of the agency with specialised data skills.
- Ensure staff with specific data responsibilities are provided with training and supported by workflow tools that make their jobs easier.
- Ensure data sharing agreements specify data rights, including whether ownership of the data will be transferred to a third party.
- Develop a visual representation of your organisation’s data roles and responsibilities that is accessible to staff within the organisation, as well as other agencies.
Download Module 6
Last updated 11 Jul 2024